


I breathe for You, Only You

by ICanSeeClearlyNow



Series: Breathe [1]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Dancer Katsuki Yuuri, Dragon Riders, Dragons, Fantasy AU, Fluff, I've always wanted a fire lizard as a pet, M/M, Major Character Injury, Makkachin is a dragon, Mild Gore, Mildly Dubious Consent, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Phichit's Hamsters are fire-breathing, Telepathic Bond, This is the closest I'm going to get, Vicchan Lives, VictUuri, Victor's Ghibli tears, accusations of abuse, no dragons were harmed in the making of this story, random animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2018-10-05 06:12:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10299374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ICanSeeClearlyNow/pseuds/ICanSeeClearlyNow
Summary: V’tor is a bronze dragon rider, destined to lead a weyr with his fire-breathing dragon Makkath in the age long battle against the terrifying organism they call thread.  Yuuri is a dancer with a love of dragons, one of the first ballet dancers; having been able to access the newly discovered records from the colonists ancient computer system AIVAS."We are … Yuuri gripped the table, but Makkath wouldn’t break off in the middle of a sentence.  It was just another small threadscore – another one?  V’tor prided himself on the lack of injuries in his wing, what was going on, was his relationship with Yuuri distracting him?  Count, Yuuri, count, but Yuuri’s mind was blank, he hadn’t thought to start counting.  Was it more than 10 seconds?  It must be.  He rose to his feet, the plate of raw meat and the mug of klar slipping from his hands.  He shouted with his mind as loud as he could.  Makkath!"This is a complete story, other stories in the series will not be a direct continuation of this story.





	1. Starting the Search

**Author's Note:**

> For YOI fans, if you’re not familiar with Anne McCaffrey’s award winning work. Pern is a planet, colonised by humans who didn’t realise the threat. Desperate for a solution from the terror of the rain of organisms that eat any living thing, they genetically engineered fire-breathing dragons from the fire lizards natural to the planet. These dragons bond telepathically with a human at hatching for life. On becoming a dragon rider names are given an honorific contraction so Victor becomes V'tor.
> 
> For Anne McCaffrey fans, the characters from Yuri!!! On Ice are some of the most marvellous I have ever come across and this story would not stay unwritten.
> 
> This story is set after the book “All the Weyrs of Pern” and does not include any of Anne McCaffrey’s characters.
> 
> The very mildly dubious consent is in Chapter 6, short not explicit and marked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 edited: 14th June 2017

_“Wheel and turn_  
_Or bleed and burn._  
_Fly between,_  
_Blue and green._  
_Soar, dive down,_  
_Bronze and brown_  
_Dragonmen must fly_  
_When Threads are in the sky.”_  
Anne McCaffrey

 V’tor stalked towards the ledge at the entrance to the Queen’s weyr where Makkath and Anastasia were dozing in the last of the evening sunlight. His thoughts were tumultuous and he couldn’t see a way out of the situation that Y’kov had forced him into. Slamming his hand against the stone wall of the cave, he stopped for a second, taking a deep breath and running his other hand through his long fringe. Great, he thought, looking at his blackened hand; he was still filthy from having lead his Wing against the Thread.  He smiled ruefully when he realized how lucky he was that Kilanth was zealously guarding her new clutch of eggs on the hatching ground and wasn’t here to witness and report on his behaviour to Lilia, and with that thought his mind went straight back to the problem that wound him up in the first place.

Makkath the huge bronze dragon raised his head as V'tor approached, being careful not to disturb the tiny golden fire lizard nestled in his forearms.

 _Why are you upset?_ Makkath asked. _The South is a good place to be. I like bathing in the sea. It is warmer there._

V’tor smiled at his dragon, it was hard to remain angry and upset around the straightforward and practical dragon.

“I never wanted to be a weyrleader Makkath,” he said gently, leaning on the dragon’s shoulder, just now beginning to realise how tired he was. “I just wanted to be a dragonrider.”

_You ARE a dragonrider, MY dragonrider._

V’tor grinned fondly at the dragon, “It’s hard to stay angry with you around.  Come on, let’s go and get cleaned up, we both stink of firestone and ash.”

Pushing away from the dragon, V’tor leant forward over the little golden fire lizard and stroked her head with one careful finger. “Anastasia,” he crooned, “come on, time to get clean.” The little queen opened one eye and gracefully stretched out her head and wings. She slowly climbed up his arm and settled on his shoulder, sending him grumpy, hungry impressions as she wrapped her tail round his neck. “Yes, yes, I know. We’ll get food after all of us are clean, if you and your friends help we’ll get food faster!”

V’tor climbed onto Makkath’s neck and as they flew down to the lake in the basin of the weyr he saw that most of the dragons were now relaxing in their quarters, some still managing to sunbathe at the entrances to the caverns dotted around the circular cliffs that formed the caldera of the ancient volcano. As Makkath back-winged to land he glanced at the large ground-level entrance to the hatching ground where the sands were too hot to walk barefoot and where his fate would be decided in a few weeks when the Queen egg hatched.

Standing in the water alongside the weyrlings assigned to dragon cleaning duty, attempting to scrub Makkath clean of the smell of the battle against Thread, V’tor started to long for a bath of his own. Threadfall had lasted 6 hours over the hold they were protecting and he had been summoned to the weyrleader’s chambers as soon as they arrived back at the weyr. Annoyance at the news Y’kov and Lilia had given him surged anew. This weyr was his home. He had expected to take on the mantel of weyrleader when Y’kov retired, but that would not be for years yet. How could they chose him, and order him to be reassigned to the new weyr in the South. Damn Y’kov and damn Lilia.

 _Mmm!_ Makkath rumbled, interrupting his thoughts, _you could scrub harder just to the left._

V’tor shook his head. Luckily no one in his wing had any major injuries, although he would have to reprimand Georgi over that stupid manoeuvre he pulled at the end when they were all tired. You could not take risks with your dragon like that.  He was shaken out of his reverie by a shower of water from one of the weyrlings whose face was a picture of horror when she realised just who she’d managed to soak. He grinned at her and scooped water back at her and she ran away shrieking and giggling.

Shaking his hair clear of water V’tor called, “Makkath, we need to get Anastasia some food, and although I’m plenty wet enough I’m not clean, so come on and get out of the lake!” Makkath looked over and huffed. With a final swipe of his muzzle to drench all the children, he hauled himself out of the lake.

Back in their personal quarters, V’tor walked quickly towards the bathing area stripping off his clothing as he went. By now he was not only dirty, but exhausted and hungry as well. Anastasia was flitting around his head, making it quite plain that now she was clean she would like to be fed, thank you very much!

“We’ll go down in 5 minutes little one.”

 _I’ll be back after I’ve bathed and fed greedy guts here Makkath, OK?_   Makkath only rumbled quietly, he was already settling down into his sleeping area.

By the time V’tor had finished cleansing himself, Makkath had gone to sleep. Anastasia was clinging onto his shoulder, creeling with hunger, making it incredibly difficult to get dressed. It did not help that her hunger was clouding his thoughts.  He yanked on some trousers leaving his top bare and stalked off to the kitchens trying to ignore the painful pinpricks of claws in his shoulder.

As he entered the kitchen cavern he spotted Yuri, his younger brother, sitting at one of the long tables near the hearth shoveling down a bowl of the stew the kitchen helpers had made available, his blonde hair tied back in a messy, short ponytail. V’tor walked over quickly, grabbing a plate of raw meat for Anastasia on the way and slumped onto the bench opposite Yuri. After enough chunks of meat had disappeared down the maw of the rapacious creature, his thoughts started to calm and clear of the turmoil her hunger was causing. He sighed, understanding the weyrleader’s reasoning, but he was not prepared for the responsibility, he was not prepared for the free-for-all of a mating flight and the lack of choice on all sides that that would involve.

Yuri had been glancing at his brothers generally depressed demeanor and with his mouth full asked, “was ‘rong?” V’tor propped up his head with one hand and stroked the now bulging fire lizard with the other.

“I …,”

“V’tor,” a cheerful, warm voice exclaimed, “here, have some of my stew, it’ll make you feel better dear.” He looked up when his foster mother slid a bowl of stew towards him along the table. She sat down beside him and smiling gently.

“Thank you.” He said gently, kissing her cheek. “Did you know?” A small grimace passed across her face, “yes dear, Lilia mentioned it yesterday and asked me not to tell you, she said you should hear it from the weyrleader first.”

Yuri broke his concentration from the stew and asked; “What’s going on?”

“After the hatching they’re assigning my wing to a new weyr they’re creating on the Southern continent. You know there are too many queen dragons in the weyr and with another queen egg on the hatching grounds, riders from various weyrs and a couple of other newly hatched queens will be moved to the new weyr. I have been ordered to be the temporary weyrleader until the first mating flight decides who will be the new weyrleaders.

“WHAT! BUT YOU’RE TAKING OVER FROM Y’KOV WHEN HE RETIRES!” Yuri shouted, drawing glances from the rest of the cavern. “Well! I’m going with you. You need someone to keep your head on the right way round, shards, you’re useless at looking after yourself!” Yuri gestured violently at V’tor’s naked torso and scratch marks from Anastasia’s claws. V’tor shot Yuri an amused look.

“Yuri, the assignments haven’t been decided yet, but if you’re determined that you want to go with V’tor then you should talk to Y’kov,” their foster mother said calmly.

“You’ve got to impress a dragon first.” V’tor commented sourly. Yuri went red in the face and slammed his fist on the table, glaring at V’tor. Anastasia cheeped as the table shook and woke her from her semi-doze.  Their foster mother shot V’tor a look. V’tor put his hand on Yuri’s fist. “Sorry! Sorry! Yuri, the right dragon just hasn’t been hatched for you yet. Just wait and see, this time it’ll be different.”

“It’s all very well for you to say, you impressed Makkath at your first hatching when you were twelve – I’m fifteen, everyone laughs at me now – I’m one of the oldest around. This time I’m going to impress a bronze like Makkath, you just wait and see!” Yuri pushed up from the table and stalked off.

“You were a little harsh, dear.”

“I’ll make it up to him later. Mother, they’re expecting Makkath to fly whichever Queen rises first.” V’tor sighed again; he seemed to be doing a lot of that this evening. “I … she … what if we end up like Y’kov and Lilia? They’re barely even civil to each other! I don’t know if I want to be in that situation. I thought there would be someone special, someone I could give everything to.” His foster mother caught his free hand and stroked it.

“V’tor, you are a great rider, your wing has the fewest injuries on this side of the continent, your men look up to you. Love is not a requirement for weyrleaders to perform their duties, as long as you get along everything will be fine. You’ll have three years to get to know everyone before anything is decided, after all.”

“But...”

“I know, you’ve always dreamt of true love, but you have to think of what’s best for the whole world and not just yourself, you knew this when you impressed a bronze dragon at such a young age, and it’s not as if Makkath hasn’t flown in a mating flight before.”

 _We do not have to take part in the first mating flight. Not if it hurts you._   _I am happy with you._  Makkath stated. V’tor grimaced, as always his dragon was far more objective than him.

His foster mother smiled when she saw V’tor’s face, “Makkath?" She could always tell when V'tor's dragon was talking to him.  “Hmm, go and rest now and tomorrow you can get a few riders together, there’s a gather at the hold and you need to start the search.  That's as good a place as any, you can relax at the same time.”

V’tor sighed and pushed his silver hair back from his face. Leaning down he kissed his foster mother’s cheek, thanked her and made his way back to his quarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist playing with the world I've been dreaming about for years and Victor and Yuuri are just perfect, I love them so much. If I've got anything majorly wrong then I'll be happy to correct it, but I don't have time to re read the 11 books in the series that I own. Please ask if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer and I'd love feedback.


	2. Gather the Threads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They meet for the first time and Yuuri dances.
> 
> Nothing happens to Vicchan, ever, OK.

_“Gather! Gather! It’s a gather day_  
_No work for us, and Thread’s away._  
_Gather all from far and near._  
_Bring your marks and bring your wares_  
_Bring your family for there’s_  
_Food and Drink and fun and song._  
_The hold flag flies: so gather along"_  
Anne McCaffrey

 

“C’ris! Have you seen Georgi?”  V’tor shouted across the bowl of the weyr to where C’ris was talking to - well, probably flirting with - one of the kitchen assistants.  C’ris broke off his conversation and sauntered over to V’tor.

“No.  Haven’t seen him since yesterday.  What’s up?”

“We’re going to the gather at the hold, if I have to go on search, I may as well enjoy it.”

“Ah… a party, just what we needed.  Get you out of that dejected mood you’ve been in since Y’kov dropped the news.  You’ve not been yourself V’tor.  We used to have so much fun.”  C’ris cocked his hip and winked at V’tor.

Smiling at his friend, V’tor looked at Makkath.   _Makkath could you please ask Doreth to tell Georgi I would like to see him in our quarters?_ There was a pause.

_He is talking to the Healer. Doreth will tell him when he has finished._

V’tor turned back to C’ris. “Can you meet me in my quarters in 20 minutes once I’ve had a chance to talk to Georgi?”

“No problem V’tor, see you shortly.” V’tor walked casually back to his quarters stopping at the kitchens to collect some food and wine.

~

“V’tor?  Doreth asked told me you wanted to talk.  I was talking to the healer about his injury.”  Georgi said as he walked into V’tor’s quarters.

“How is he?  Is he going to be fit for the next Threadfall in a week?”

“Yes.  Everything should be fine by then, it was only a small score mark on his leg.  We’ve been given permission to go _between_.”

V’tor’s mouth thinned,  “Georgi!  Even one scoremark that puts a dragon out of action is too much.  Don’t get so emotionally involved in watching Anya that it puts you and your dragon at risk,” V’tor stated with very little patience.  Georgi was obsessed with one of the green riders in V’tor’s wing and was overprotective to the extreme when they were fighting, even though she was a perfectly competent rider.  V’tor came closer to Georgi, anger apparent, “Georgi, if you or your dragon gets injured one more time, I will have you transferred to a different wing, do you understand me?”

“But, V’tor, I love her. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her.”  V’tor raised his forefinger to his lips and stared thoughtfully at Georgi, who shuffled nervously.

Eventually he said; “Georgi, I think I should raise this with Y’kov.”

“NO! I mean I’ll keep my mind on the fight from now on.  I promise.”  Georgi scrubbed at his face.  “I know you’re right, and I’m sorry.  I could have put other riders in danger.”

“Hmm.”  V’tor turned to the table nearby and poured wine into a glass.  “Here, take this, we’re just waiting for C’ris.”

~

The next morning the three dragons appeared above the hold, wings beating steadily.  V’tor pointed Makkath down to a cleared area near where the gather tents had been set up.  Crowds were already thronging around; people had come from miles around to take part in the day’s festivities, taking advantage of a week without the threat of Threadfall.  Both Georgi with Doreth and C’ris with Felath circled round to land behind V’tor and Makkath.

“I need to go and see Lord Celestino.  We’ll split up.  You know what we’re looking for; you’ve done this before.  I’ll see you this evening at the performance area.  We’ll deserve a drink by then.”  V’tor dismissed his riders and Anastasia settled herself on his shoulder.

“Anastasia, go and see if you can find Lord Celestino for me?”  V’tor encouraged his little queen off his shoulder and projected an image of the Lord Holder to her.  She looked at him intently and flew off.  “Well, it will be interesting to see if that works.” V’tor said to himself. He was having the occasional training session with the weyr harper and her fire lizards.  Anastasia was quick to pick up on things, but was easily distracted, so he wasn’t sure if it would work, especially with the amount of people and other fire lizards creating a racket.

Surprisingly, a short while later Anastasia appeared in front of him, projecting an image of Lord Celestino walking the gather with his family, she was also very smug and radiating satisfaction.  “You clever girl!”  V’tor made a fuss of her as she climbed back onto his shoulder and they set off to find the Lord Holder.

“V’tor, welcome!  We haven’t seen you at the Hold for weeks.  Glad you could make it to the gather.  Come, tell us how goes it at the Weyr.”  Internally V’tor cringed, Lord Celestino was always rather loud, but meant well.

“So I heard you’ve got another queen egg laid this time.  Congratulations my boy.  The weyrleader must be very pleased.  We need all the queens we can get these days.”  Lord Celestino came forward, clasped V’tor’s arm and clapped him on the back with his other hand.  Anastasia hissed and flapped her wings on V’tor’s shoulder.  He shushed her, telling her that she knew Lord Celestino and not to make such a fuss and apologized to the taken aback Lord.  She wrapped her tail firmly around V’tor’s neck and stared balefully at Lord Celestino.

V’tor loosened Anastasia’s hold on his neck so he could speak.  “Yes.  As you know we need more candidates for the hatching, there aren’t enough of the right ages in the weyr.  I would like to ask your permission to search the hold.”

“Yes, but it’s not like the old days here, V’tor.  I won’t have anyone dragged off when they don’t want to go.  The lands have been protected with grubs after all, we’re not as vulnerable as we used to be.”

“I understand, my Lord, I would not have taken anyone unwilling anyway, even if this were 20 years ago.  Thank you.”  V’tor extricated himself tactfully from the group and walked away.

The day passed.  That was all V’tor could say.  Makkath was enjoying the opportunity to doze in the sun on the heights of the hold, so there was no one to share his dissatisfaction with.  He browsed the wares of the various stalls and talked to those people who were brave enough to hold a conversation with a well-known dragonrider.  Carefully, he watched people’s reactions, especially Anastasia’s reactions to the people he was talking to and constantly judged their capabilities. By the evening he was tired and sorely in need of a drink.

~

“Phiiiichitttt!”  Yuuri groaned, “you’ve got to stop feeding Vicchan, he won’t be able to fly.  I don’t know how your three don’t just waddle around the amount they eat!”

“It’s only a little bit Yuuri, and anyway he loves it, don’t you boy?”  Phichit scratched the little bronze fire lizard on the eye ridge and Vicchan slumped onto Phichit's arm in ecstasy, forelegs hanging either side and generally looking completely boneless.

“Hmm, I do appreciate you looking after him for me while I dance, he does tend to want to join in and I’m afraid I’ll hurt him.”

“Why haven’t you choreographed a dance with him then?”  Phichit asked.

“He’s not that clever.  Even though he’s a lot more intelligent than your load of reprobates.”  Yuuri stated with a small grin.

“Yuuri! I’m devastated! I’m not sure I can forgive you.”  Phichit pouted and then grinned.  “Speaking of trouble …”

“Oh No!”  Yuuri immediately put his hands over his head – the last thing he need was for his slicked back hairstyle to be rearranged.

“Yes … and here they are.”  With a great deal of squeaking and chirping a blur of green and brown flew into the tent.  They resolved themselves into three fire lizards, one bronze, one brown and a green.  The bronze and brown settled on Phichit’s shoulders, but the green hovered a moment chirping fiercely at the two males before settling on Phichit’s head.

“You expect me to train Vicchan to take part in a complex dance routine when you can’t even get your own to behave?”  Yuuri raised his eyebrows at Phichit.

“Well, mine are unique,” Phichit grinned.

“You can say that again!”

“Yuuri!” Phichit whined.  “Anyway, Yuuri, I came to tell you that your hero is here.”

“Who?”

“You know.  Tall, silver hair, dragon, did I say handsome?”

Yuuri blushed, “You mean V’tor?  Phichit, did you have to tell me that now?  Nerves are already eating at me.  Why would you do this to me?”

“Hey!  You totally rock Yuuri!  Everyone is going to love this, and anyway no one else knows anything about ballet so they won’t know if you screw up, you’ll slay them!”

“Go away Phichit and leave me to panic in peace.”  Yuuri’s face was creased with worry and his eyes were strained.

Phichit came around the table and hugged Yuuri – quite a feat with four fire lizards hanging off his shoulders and arms.  “Yuuri, you’ll be the star of the evening. You can do it.”  Yuuri looked up at Phichit and the fire lizards, Vicchan chirped at him, eyes whirling with worry, projecting reassuring thoughts at Yuuri.  It was hard to stay miserable with 5 pairs of eyes all looking at him with care and affection.

Yuuri sighed, “thanks Phichit, I’ll see you after?”

“You bet.  I’ll come back and chat when you’re done.”  With one last pat to Yuuri’s shoulder Phichit left the tent.

Yuuri sat back, a picture came into his mind of his first performance at Southern.  After months of research and practice his mother, father, Yuuko, Tadeshi and his tutor Minako were gathered in a room to watch.  He only wanted to perform for them; he was too shy and nervous to allow anyone else to see.  At the end of the dance, he looked over at them.  No one was saying anything.  Minako had her hand over her mouth, and her eyes were suspiciously wet.  His father and Tadeshi had their mouths hanging open, his mother was openly crying, and Yuuko, Yuuko had her hands clasping in front of her chest and was bouncing in her seat.

Yuuri lowered his gaze.  “Was it that bad?” He asked in a low voice, immediately jumping to the worst conclusion.  All these months of practice for nothing?

“YUURI!”  Yuuko shouted.  “What are you talking about?  That was amazing; I’ve never seen anything like it.  You… How…”

“Oh Yuuri,” Minako said gently.  “That was so special.  Do you think you could do it for more people?  It would be a great shame to keep that just to us.”  A few weeks later Phichit came to Southern to see his best friend and Yuuri’s fate was sealed.

One of the harpers came into the tent, disrupting Yuuri’s introspection, ”you’re on next.  All ready?”

Yuuri took a deep breath.  “Yes. I’m ready.”

~

Making his way among the tables of the performance area at the gather V’tor saw Lord Celestino sitting at a large table with his wife and a couple of his younger children who turned to stare at V’tor.  Lord Celestino noticed and shouted, “Join us, V’tor! Have you seen any likely ones today?”

“There was a couple of lads who might make good riders, but both C’ris and Georgi are looking as well.”

“Well, if they are interested and not performing a vital function then they can go.  Have some wine.  It’s a good pressing, last year produced a good vintage.”  Lord Celestino sat back and contemplated his glass of deep red wine.

V’tor sipped the wine, relishing the smooth taste.  “This is a very good year, my Lord.”  There was a slight commotion beside V’tor and Phichit sat down, his four fire lizards noisily settling around him.  Anastasia opened one eye and looked contemptuously down at them.

“Hello Phichit,” V’tor said.  He looked at the little bronze sitting on Phichit’s arm, “I see you’ve gained another fire lizard.”

“Oh!  This one isn’t mine he’s Yuuri’s.  This is Vicchan, come and say hello to V’tor Vicchan.”  Phichit raised the arm that Vicchan was currently perched on and Vicchan tilted his head and flapped his wings.  Anastasia craned her neck and stared down at the other fire lizard.  Vicchan squeaked and hid his head.

“How is Yuuri, Phichit?”  Lord Celestino enquired, interrupting the antics of the mini dragons.

“Nervous, as usual, but I think he’ll be fine.  He’s on in a couple of minutes.”  Phichit turned to V’tor, “you’ve got to meet Yuuri, V’tor.  He’s going to be so excited to meet you.”  Phichit gushed.

V’tor raised one eyebrow, “Why me?”

“Oh! Come on, you’re kind of famous you know.  I may have talked about you, a bit, when I visited Yuuri at Southern.”  Phichit grinned.  V’tor took that to mean that Phichit talked a lot.

Lord Celestino poured V’tor another glass of wine.  “Settle down Phichit, and keep those annoying pests quiet too.”  Phichit gasped, and the green fire lizard chirped.

V’tor settled himself at the table with his wine and toasted the Lord.  He was about to talk about the latest search when the noise of the crowd dropped and his attention was drawn to a lone figure on the dais, dressed in a close fitting material of the same colour as a bronze dragon, made to look like scales.  The costume had two narrowing diagonal stripes of gold across the chest, leading down to a half skirt of green and blue on the underneath, clearly using all the colours of the dragons. Small flames of gold ran down the outside of the arms. The young man’s short black hair was slicked back and his eyes were an amazing caramel colour.

“Looks like the main act is about to begin – I’ll talk to you later lad, I don’t want to miss this.”  Celestino turned away and fixed his gaze on the stage.  V’tor heard Phichit give a piercing whistle.

The music started to play and the figure started to dance.  V’tor had never seen anything like it.  As the dancer moved he could imagine the flight of the dragon, the tumbling and turning as they fought thread, the agony of the burn as it ripped across your skin.  He couldn’t take his eyes off the dancer.

~

Yuuri walked onto the dais and the crowd became quieter.  He nodded at the musicians at the back and took his starting position.  He heard Phichit’s whistle as a distant noise, all his concentration on the performance to come.  The lead musician nodded their head in time to the beat, the music started and Yuuri lost himself in the dance.  In his head the story played; the fire lizard’s darting flight and the laughter they brought to people’s lives, then the dragons with more stately and elegant movements, the bravery and tragedy of fighting thread, the world-breaking grief of the rider who loses their dragon and the despair and death _between_ of the dragon whose rider dies.  Finally the joy of the discovery of a way to permanently end the threat of thread and the peace it will bring.

Yuuri came back to the present with a shock as a roar of applause washed over him.  Even the musicians were clapping.  His face coloured immediately and he bowed deeply.

~

As the dance came to an end, V’tor let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

_This one interests you?_

_I…I don’t know Makkath, he…it’s as if he’s been a dragon rider. It’s incredible._

_You should talk to him then._

_Do you think he’s a likely candidate?_

_I think you should talk to him._

Typical dragon V’tor thought, straightforward and practical.  The dance was over by then, the crowd silent, everyone having been affected by the power of the dancer as he stood, head bowed on the stage.  Then they erupted into cheers and clapping, demanding more and banging mugs onto tables.  The dancer raised his head, his cheeks bright red, he bowed deeply and walked calmly off the stage.  The next singer took their place.

Phichit stopped screeching and jumped to his feet.  “If you’ll excuse me father, V’tor, I’ll go and bring Yuuri out to see you.”  Phichit dashed off, weaving between the tables, his fire lizards including the little bronze, flying behind him.

“Well, what do you think?  Good isn’t he?”  Lord Celestino demanded.

V’tor raised an eyebrow at Lord Celestino.  “He was amazing!  Where did he learn to do that?”

“Yuuri grew up in Southern Hold, his parents ran the kitchens.  When AIVAS was discovered he was one of the first children to be enrolled in the new ‘school’ they set up after all the excitement died down.  I enrolled my son Phichit in the same school as he was fostering at the hold and they became friends.  The students were allowed to access the ‘database’, I believe they call it, in their free time to explore, and Yuuri discovered information on what he calls ballet dancing.  Phichit says that he couldn’t stop talking about it and basically taught himself through the information contained in the system.

When Phichit came home, all he could talk about, besides those blasted pests he brought back with him, was Yuuri and his dancing.  When Yuuri’s visit was scheduled to coincide with a gather he agreed to this performance.”  Lord Celestino’s face became thoughtful; “I could tell he was reluctant, but you’ve met Phichit before, and you know what he’s like when he gets an idea in his head.  Yuuri wasn’t really given a choice.  I must admit I was impressed when I watched him practicing, although I can’t see a practical application for this.”

At a movement towards the table, V’tor glanced up and saw Phichit approaching with the dark haired young man called Yuuri.

“Ah, Yuuri, come and meet V’tor, rider of Makkath from the weyr.”  Lord Celestino gestured to V’tor and waved Yuuri and Phichit to seats beside them.

Yuuri bowed low and murmured, “I am honoured to meet you, V’tor, rider of Makkath.”

V’tor in turn stood abruptly from his seat and gave a short bow in turn to Yuuri.  “I have never seen anything like that performance.  You based it on dragons?  How much do you know about dragons?  What gave you the idea to create a dance like that?”

Yuuri blinked and his cheeks coloured at the barrage of questions.  He ducked his head and hesitantly said, “I learnt a lot from the videos stored on AIVAS, and … erm…” Phichit elbowed him, and Yuuri jerked and started talking a lot faster, “I’ve always loved dragons and the way they fly and they’re so brave and beautiful.”  Yuuri blurted out in a rush.  “Sorry.”  He mumbled.

V’tor wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh or hug him. He was adorable, a completely different person to the one performing. Dancer Yuuri, as V’tor thought of the performer, was stunningly beautiful, confident and he owned the audience whereas this Yuuri was shy, bashful and cute. How they could both be the same person, V’tor could not guess.

“Come, sit down, I’d like to talk more.” V’tor sat back down, gesturing to the seat next to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon that Georgi refused to contract his name, as it would turn into G’orgi! I just couldn’t do it!
> 
> As always, I’d love to get feedback and chat to people. If you want to chat about dragons or YOI on tumblr my url is [@narcissuspseudonarcissus](https://narcissuspseudonarcissus.tumblr.com/)


	3. Run to safety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V’tor can’t keep away; Yuuri meets Makkath and does not make the best decisions when hung-over.
> 
> Shorter, she says, more to the point, she says, ha! HAHAHAHA! *goes and hides, sobbing, banging head on computer*
> 
> Klar ~= coffee

_“Who wills,_  
_Can._  
_Who tries,_  
_Does,_  
_Who loves,_  
_Lives.”_  
Anne McCaffrey (I think)

 

“Yuuri, Yuuri, wake up! Wake UP!”  Yuuri tried to bury himself further under the covers, but Phichit wasn’t having that.  “Come on you lot help me get him up.”  At that Yuuri tried to completely hide, but it was no use, four sets of claws and a pair of hands removed the covers.  Phichit had an evil grin on his face. 

“I hate you Phichit,” Yuuri groaned.  “Why can’t I have a lie-in after last night?”

“You have had a lie-in Yuuri, it’s midday.  You need to make an appearance for the midday meal at least, people still want to talk to you about your performance last night.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll get up.”  Phichit sat on the only chair in the guest room as Yuuri levered himself up, head aching a little.  His tolerance for northern wine was growing, but he’d still only had two glasses.  Scrubbing at his eyes, he glanced over to where Vicchan was perched on the windowsill eagerly waiting for Yuuri to get up and fetch some food.  The heavy thread proof metal shutters were thrown back showing that it was at least midday from the position of the sun.  Phichit had brought a mug of klar, knowing that Yuuri was not a morning person.  Yuuri threw it back in one gulp; sighing and then stretching to ease his slightly stiff muscles.

As Yuuri washed and dressed he tried to ignore Phichit’s increasing attempts to pry into his feelings for the bronze dragonrider V’tor.

“C’mon Yuuri, you’ve got to relieve me of my misery, please, please … you liked him didn’t you?  Phichit challenged Yuuri.

Yuuri sighed and sat on the bed, “Alright, I liked him.  He was charming and kind.”  Yuuri thought back to the conversation after his dance last night.  V’tor had been different to what he was expecting; he expected, well actually he wasn’t entirely sure what he expected, the one time Yuuri had seen V’tor was when he was being welcomed to Southern weyr and that was fairly formal.  Yuuri had never told Phichit of the wink V’tor had thrown him during the evening meal as he helped serve the dinner.  Yuuri of course immediately died inside and hid behind the nearest person.  He smiled at the thought of his old self.  Even though he still had the occasional panic attack, he was nowhere near the shy mouse he had been then.  He came back to himself with Phichit waving his hand in front of his face.

“Yuuri!  I didn’t think the evening was that good!”  Phichit smirked knowingly and punched Yuuri lightly on the shoulder.

“Ow!  No, stop teasing, I was just thinking back to the first time I saw him and remembering how stupidly shy I was.”

“Well, you certainly seemed to hit it off last night.  Hardly anyone else could get a word in edgeways!”

Yuuri buried his head in his hands, “was I really that bad, I’ve gone and embarrassed myself in front of him.”  Yuuri groaned.

“No!  He was really interested Yuuri, even I could see that.”

“Well, the ballet thing is new …”

“Not the ballet you idiot,” interrupted Phichit.  “You, he was interested in you.”

“Ha!  Me?  I don’t think so.”  Yuuri’s face was becoming a rather interesting shade of red at this point so Phichit decided that he’d teased enough for now.  Besides that the fire lizards were starting to make it plain that they were hungry and were going to start making a proper fuss soon.

“Well, anyway, my three little ones here need feeding and so does your Vicchan by the looks of it.”  At that Yuuri guiltily looked up at Vicchan on the windowsill.

“You’re right, anyway I probably won’t meet him again, it was a good evening though.”

As they went in search of food, Yuuri was looking forward to a couple of days with his best friend, now the public dancing was over, taking the opportunity to see how things were done differently on the Northern continent and talking to the harper about the newest discoveries made on AIVAS.

~

At the moment the sun was shining and the morning air was crisp and still as they hovered above the star stone. V’tor looked over his shoulder at the wing of dragons in formation behind Makkath; Georgi and C’ris directly behind him and the other riders of his wing spread out behind them. In front, beside and behind, all the dragons of the weyr with fighting capability were arrayed by wing, the dragon’s wings beating steadily in the morning air, and sun reflecting off the their scales.  He pulled his helmet firmly over his head, and asked _Makkath do you have the visualization from Nirenth?_

 _I do._ Makkath replied, and raising his fist in the air V’tor waited for Y’kov’s signal to go _between_.  Letting his fist fall they went _between_.

The numbing, cold blackness surrounded them before they burst out into the warmer air of the coastline, V’tor looked over his wing to check they were all still in formation and waited. Luckily this would be a short fall as most of the thread was falling out to sea where it would do no harm. The dragons hovered as they watched to the west, waiting for the grey rain they could see in the distance to reach the land. They were in time and V’tor watched for the signal to engage. He could tell Makkath was thrilled at the prospect of combat, feeling the same eagerness they felt every time. This was what they were made for, and this was what V’tor was born to do.

The wings were spread across the coastline as the thread mindlessly sought out the life below. There was no time to think as they flew up and Makkath flamed, destroying the clumps of deadly, burning rain. A cry from the far right in another wing – and a dragon and rider disappeared into the cold of between to try to kill the thread draped across their bodies, reappearing a few seconds later, still able to continue. Makkath, V’tor and his wingriders fought on; catching a glimpse of the golden Queen’s wing lower down who were chasing any stray thread that escaped the flaming wings above.

Two hours later and Y’kov gave the signal for the end of Threadfall. V’tor looked over at the rest of his wing, no further injuries luckily and he told Makkath to pass on permission to return to the weyr.

Back at the weyr, V’tor, C’ris and Georgi, together with their dragons headed towards the lake, briefly distracted by the keening of an injured dragon as a healer tended her leg and her rider looked on anxiously.  V’tor did not have to encourage Makkath into the water and a bevvy of fire lizards appeared to help wash the massive creatures.  V’tor set to scrubbing Makkath’s hide to remove the stench of firestone with a pensive expression on his face.  He was no closer to solving the problem presented by the hatching.  How could he be a weyrleader when he may have no respect or affection for the Weyrwoman?  A hot breath of air blew V’tor’s fringe to one side and he looked up at Makkath who had bent his head to look back at V’tor.

_Do not worry; it is three years away._

_Makkath, I want to be with someone who I respect, not some random girl who’s come to the weyr because it provides a better life._

_The dragons know best.  All will be well._

V’tor sighed; he wished he could share his dragon’s optimism.  He agreed that generally the dragons did know whom best to choose, but there were occasional disasters and Y’kov and Lilia were not the best example either, although they managed to get along for the sake of the weyr.

“Hey. You OK there?”  C’ris had wandered over and placed a hand on V’tor’s shoulder.

“Tell me C’ris, how do you feel about moving to the South?”

“Fine, it’s warm, beautiful and as long as D’ren can come with us, I don’t have a problem.  Why?  Are you having second thoughts?  You’ll be a great weyrleader V’tor.  Talking of which there was a suitable candidate at the hold, her parents are agreeable, she just wanted a couple of days to say goodbye and get some belongings together.  Why don’t you go on and fetch her back to the weyr, you can talk to Lord Celestino about the next fall due over the hold and can chat up Yuuri again – he seemed to be quite taken with you.”  C’ris said the last with a grin.  “I know I wouldn’t waste the opportunity!”  C’ris clapped V’tor on the back and went back to trying to get Georgi as wet as possible while they cleaned their dragons.

~

The day before Yuuri was due to return to the south Phichit found him in the side room off the main hall that had been allocated for Yuuri to practice in.  “Yuuri!  What are you doing stuck in here?”

Yuuri held the attitude pose he was in as Phichit entered the room, gradually bringing his leg down into third position so he could finish in an attitude with the other leg behind.

“I’m practicing.”  Yuuri frowned at Phichit.  “You know I need to do this every day.  What’s the problem?” Yuuri lowered his leg and arms and shook himself out.  “I’ve got to stretch before I do anything else, so you can talk while I do that.”

Phichit wasn’t used to this assertive Yuuri, and sat quietly for a minute on a storage box to the side of the room.  “You know,” he said eventually, “it's like you’re two different people, there’s the shy, best friend and then there’s this person, whose determination frankly scares me.”  Phichit chuckled.  “I wonder which one V’tor saw the other day?”

“Phichit, if you don’t tell me what you want I’ll throw something at you.”

“Ooh! See, scary Yuuri.”  Phichit chuckled.  “Anyway, I just thought you’d like to know that V’tor is here, he’s talking to my father about something and asked to see you.”

“Me?”  Yuuri swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

“Yes, you.”

“Did he say why?”  He asked hoarsely.

“Who cares, Yuuri?  Go and say hello, his dragon might bite but I don’t think he does, unless you want him to!”  Yuuri glared at Phichit, but carried on stretching.

“I need to get clean, I’m sweaty and …”

“Yuuri, it’s obvious you’ve been practicing, just go and talk to him."  Seeing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere Phichit grabbed Yuuri by one hand, hooked his towel in the other, called to Vicchan, who was dozing on one of the boxes and pulled him out of the disused storage room into the main hall.

A tall, silver haired figure was standing talking to Lord Celestino, but when Phichit and Yuuri entered the room he turned.

“YUURI!” The shout echoed across the dining hall.  Yuuri paled, and swallowed again.  V’tor said something quickly to the Lord and came striding towards him, his golden fire lizard perched on his shoulder.  “I’m so glad to see you again.”  V’tor made as if to hug Yuuri, but when he saw his face he just held out his hand instead.  Yuuri put his hand out and stared at their clasped hands as V’tor shook them vigorously.  “I’ve come to talk to your father Phichit, to confer and see whether there are any special needs for the Threadfall tomorrow.  I’ve also come to collect the young girl who showed promise as a dragonrider, and to see Yuuri.” This last was said with a broad wink and a grin.  Yuuri immediately coloured up to his eyebrows and ducked his head.  Vicchan, who had been staring at V’tor’s Anastasia, hid his face in Yuuri’s hair.

“W…Why me?”  Yuuri stuttered.  “I…I mean, I’m honoured, but you must have more important things to do?”

“Even dragon riders are allowed time to relax and get to know people.”  V’tor said with amusement, “and you are a person I would very much like to know better after our conversation the other evening.”  Yuuri looked up in amazement, was V’tor … flirting with him!  He felt his cheeks burning.

“I …”

“Yuuri would like to get to know you better too V’tor.” interposed Phichit, pushing Yuuri in V’tor’s direction.  V’tor laughed.

“Come on Yuuri, I’ll introduce you to Makkath!”  V’tor grabbed Yuuri’s hand and pulled.  “Please excuse us Lord Celestino!”

“Phichit, erm, I’ll be back in a bit!”  Yuuri yelped as his feet caught up with his body and he jogged after V’tor.

The wind was chilly on the heights and Yuuri wished he’d brought a jacket, although he forgot to be cold when he met the huge bronze dragon in front of him.

“Er…hello,” he quavered.  The dragon dipped his head and nuzzled at Yuuri’s chest.  “Oh!”  Yuuri was pushed back a pace and gasped.  Vicchan squawked, flapped his wings and harangued Makkath with a long sequence of indignant chirps.  Makkath slowly blinked back at the tiny dragon.

“Makka likes you, he says you’ll make a great dragon rider.”  V’tor reassured Yuuri gently.  “He likes to be scratched on the eye ridges.”  Yuuri nervously put out a hand and rubbed along the brow of Makkath’s eye.  A pleased rumble followed.

 _You will be the one_.

“What?”  Yuuri said.  V’tor turned back from adjusting the riding straps and looked at him questioningly.  “Oh, er, in Southern weyr we were so busy rushing around that there wasn’t any time to get to know the dragons, and I was always too shy to ask.  I mean the riders were friendly and everything, but I …” Yuuri trailed off still looking at Makkath.

“You know, I was asked several times.”  Yuuri said, after a pause.

“Er … what sorry?”  V’tor dragged his gaze away from Yuuri’s face and concentrated on what he was saying.

Yuuri cleared his throat quietly, “I was asked to be a candidate for a hatching several times at Southern weyr.”

“Why did you refuse?”  V’tor was confused, no one, ever, turned down the chance of becoming a dragonrider.

“Well, I was happy with my family and I … I’m not good with very stressful situations.  One of the rites of passage at Southern is to be able to spend two days outside of shelter when threadfall is due.  I had to have Pitchit with me as …” Yuuri paused, and ducked his head.

“I understand; you don’t have to go on.”  V’tor said gently.

“No, I should be honest.  I have panic attacks and everyone was scared that I wouldn’t survive on my own if I had a panic attack, so Phichit came with me.  Ever since then I knew I wouldn't be able to handle being a dragonrider, so I always said no whenever they asked.”  Yuuri’s voice was slightly hoarse and his face was strained with remembered humiliation.

“You …” V’tor began.

“No, let me finish.  The trouble was that they didn’t understand.  I wasn’t afraid of being outside in threadfall, I was afraid of letting everyone down, I was afraid of failing, like everyone assumed I would without Phichit.”  By this time Yuuri’s fists were clenched against his legs.

V’tor placed his hands on Yuuri’s shoulders, “I understand.  I think you’re wrong, I think they were wrong, but I won’t push.  Let’s just enjoy this evening.  Maybe you can come and watch the hatching with Phichit?”

Yuuri looked out over the valley the hold was nestled in, trying to understand what V’tor could see in him.  Yes, he was good at dancing, the Masterharper himself had basically ordered Minako to let Yuuri loose on the databases once he saw what Yuuri had found, but a lifelong partnership with a dragon, that was something he dreamed of once, but what if he had a panic attack in the middle of Threadfall, he would be responsible for his dragon getting injured or worse.

 _You would not have a problem; we would not allow it_.  Yuuri glanced at V’tor who smiled back.  He then looked a Makkath who was staring intently at him.

 _Are you able to hear me?_   Yuuri thought back as clearly as he could.

 _Yes, this close you are very loud._ Yuuri thought he could hear faint amusement in the mental tone and his jaw dropped slightly.  He could hear dragons or just Makkath?  He had heard of people who weren’t dragonriders with this ability before, but it was very rare.  No wonder the riders kept asking him to be a candidate, but why hadn’t he heard any dragons before now?

“… Yuuri, Yuuri” V’tor was shaking him slightly with a worried expression on his face.

“Oh, sorry, I …” Yuuri did not know how to explain and just smiled at V’tor.  V’tor couldn’t tear his eyes away and felt something seize inside him.  He caught his breath, his gaze flicked to Yuuri’s lips and back up to his eyes.  V’tor closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath of restraint.

“Come back inside, it looks like you could do with a drink.”  V’tor said in as cheerful a voice as he could manage, put his arm around Yuuri’s shoulders and gently guided him back down from the heights and inside the hall.

“Come on Yuuri,” shouted Phichit, who walked over as soon as he saw them with two glasses of wine.  “We all want to see one final dance before you go home tomorrow evening.”  Phichit gave V’tor a significant glance and raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘what happened?’

Yuuri pulled himself together even though the shame of his confession was still gripping him like a large black hand around his body and the shock of speaking to Makkath had dazed him.  A drink, a drink might be the very thing.  He grabbed one of the glasses of wine from Phichit.  Phichit winked at V’tor and guided them over to one of the tables set up for the evening meal.

“Here, sit down and relax, you look like you’re about to drown your head in a bucket of water.”  Phichit topped up the almost empty glass of wine in Yuuri’s hand and motioned for V’tor to sit on the opposite side of the table from them.  He waved his hand at a servant and asked them to bring food and meat for the fire lizards.

“I’m sorry.”  Yuuri said unsteadily.

“What for?”  Phichit and V’tor asked at the same time.

“I really want to dance, but I’m not sure I can right now, and – oh, I’m still in my practice clothes.”

“Yuuri, we’re not expecting an exhibition – you already did that at the gather.  Just a dance, show off some of the other stuff you know.”

“Oh.  I suppose so.  In a bit.”

Phichit kept plying Yuuri with alcohol, winking at V’tor every time he filled Yuuri’s glass.  V’tor could see Yuuri gradually unwinding and as the hall filled and the harper began to play he could see Yuuri begin to sway with the rhythm of the songs.

“Yuuri, will you teach me some of your dancing?”  V’tor finally asked.  Yuuri looked away from where he was drunkenly trying to get Vicchan to show some interest in moving to the music by dancing his fingers on the table and up at V’tor.  Yuuri smiled, his whole face lighting up with enthusiasm, his warm brown eyes pinned V’tor to his seat and he felt as if Anastasia’s tail was choking him, even though she was curled up with Makkath on the heights.

Yuuri stood up, wavering a little as he concentrated on his movements.  V’tor wasn’t sure that Yuuri was going to be able to walk, let alone dance.  Phichit may have overdone the alcoholic relaxation therapy slightly.  But as soon as Yuuri walked round the table and pulled V’tor by the hand he seemed to exude confidence and surety.  Confident dancer Yuuri had fully taken over and pulled V’tor to a free space.

“Here, put your hands like this and your feet like this.”  Yuuri commanded maneuvering V’tor.  “Now, imagine a 3-beat and follow my lead.”  V’tor was entranced, and distractedly did everything Yuuri asked.  He grinned as the very sexy, poised young man of their previous meeting emerged, and prepared to enjoy himself to the full.

It was later, much later.  Yuuri wasn’t quite sure which way was up, but everything was totally hilarious and V’tor was gorgeous and those blue eyes were mesmerizing – ooops did he say that out loud?  He looked into V’tor’s face, which was dusted with pink as Yuuri clung to him for balance, because at this stage he wasn’t sure how his legs worked.  “I loves uou.”  He slurred indistinctly and passed out.

~

Yuuri woke early; Vicchan was twitching in his sleep where he lay on Yuuri’s chest.  He reached out his hand to the press next to his bed where one of the newfangled wrist timepieces lay, trying not to disturb the little lizard.  As he moved his head a splitting pain shot up his neck and right round to his left eyebrow.  Yuuri slumped back and groaned.  Ugh … hangover time.  He searched his mind for memories of last night.  Oh yes, Phichit decided that it would be a great idea if Yuuri danced for everyone after the evening meal, and in order to get Yuuri to agree had liberally plied him with alcohol.  He didn’t remember much after that; he assumed Phichit had brought him back to the room.  Finally managing to grab the watch, Yuuri blearily focused on the time.  It was still very early, he hadn’t had anywhere near enough sleep, but as his mouth felt like he had tried to eat a ball of wool and for some stupid reason the jug of water was empty, Yuuri needed to get to the kitchens for more water.

Finally dressed, he walked slowly to the kitchens, trying to avoid any sudden movements.  The kitchens were virtually empty, just a few drudges lighting the fires, no one else seemed to be about.  Yuuri downed a few glasses of water and grabbing some bread and meat for Vicchan left over from the previous day, he felt that fresh air would be the best solution to the problem, after all Threadfall wasn’t due until much later on in the afternoon, he was only going to be out for an hour at the most and after being told about staying trapped in a hold with all the windows and doors barred during Threadfall the other day, he needed to get out into the fresh-air now, before someone tried to stop him.

Still feeling fuzzy-headed, Yuuri went to the main hold doors and slipped outside as quietly as possible (not that quietly with the massive ironwork, but he didn’t want to wake people unnecessarily).  He set off past where the gather had been held gradually feeding Vicchan as he walked.

He remembered that first time he saw V’tor at Southern weyr.  He was just coming back from a class with Minako.  The students needed to learn how to assemble the circuit boards needed for the computers they were using before lessons on the databases could begin.  A bronze dragon came out of _between_ and landed before the weyr, the rider dismounted and took off their helmet, and weyrhide jacket, the heat was still oppressive even this early in the morning.  Shaking out their long silver hair they walked towards the weyr.  Yuuri who was standing in the shadows of one of the educational buildings watched the drop-dead gorgeous young man as he walked across the grass, paralysed with terror in case he was spotted, he watched until the rider was out of sight.  Later on he had, rather unsubtly, grilled Phichit and Minako on dragon riders with silver hair and found out V’tor’s name, the fact that he was one day to succeed the weyrleader Y’kov on the northern continent and his dragon was called Makkath.  He spent the rest of the evening trying to avoid the dragonrider whilst watching him as much as possible.

He thought back to how he had nagged the hold harper into drawing him a picture and desperately sought out any news from the weyrs.  Of course, his parents had thought that this meant that Yuuri longed to be a dragon rider, and hence the visits from the riders at the weyr whenever there were eggs on the hatching ground.  He walked on, deep in thought, remembering his meeting with Makkath yesterday, wishing that he could remember what might have been the best evening of his life.

After some time, he reaching the top of a low hill and as the headache was finally vanishing, he looked back, slightly surprised at how far away from the hold he had walked, never mind, there was plenty of time to get back.  Sitting on the shortened grass, with the warmth of the early morning sun, Yuuri lay back.  His eyes were heavy and he thought that a small nap wouldn’t do any harm, after all Threadfall wasn’t due until much later.

~

Yuuri was awoken by something, all senses alert.  Vicchan was standing on his chest, eyes whirling red with either excitement or fear, Yuuri couldn’t tell.  What time was it?  He looked at his watch.  Shards!  He’d been asleep for hours.  What time was Threadfall due?  He jumped to his feet, head spinning slightly and looked around.  Where was he?

From the top of the hill he could see the cliffs of the hold in the far distance.  Gulping, Yuuri looked in the other direction where he could see the grey mist like rain of thread high in the sky and flashes of fire in the air.  Looking frantically at the cliffs his feet took off before his brain could really register any thought.  It was too far; there was no way he would make it before the leading edge arrived.  He thought frantically; there were no caves nearby to hide in, and there were no rivers either, so Yuuri just put his head down and ran, Vicchan squeaking encouragement as he flew just in front.

Swiftly, the ground passed under his feet as his speed gradually ate away at the distance to the hold, he was grateful for his stamina, but it wasn’t going do him any good if he couldn’t outrun the thread.

Sprinting like never before; he couldn’t think about the soreness gradually taking over his feet or the way his head was starting to pound again. He did risk a glance up at the cliffs that were slowly getting larger.

Suddenly his aching feet stumbled over a stone in the path, but luckily he didn’t fall; his breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps now, his feet numb.  Risking another glance, this time he looked back and saw the leading edge of thread in the sky, but only a short distance away.

Searching desperately for more energy he tried to run even faster, hopelessness curling through his gut and tears forming.

Suddenly, Yuuri felt the air change behind him, Vicchan disappeared with a startled screech and he threw himself to the ground curled into a ball, even though he knew it wouldn’t do any good against thread burrowing into his skin. A hot blast of air, stinking of firestone, a thud and a shout;

“GET UP!  Climb on, the leading edge is almost here!”

Yuuri jerked his head to see a massive bronze dragon with its foreleg extended.   _Come!_ The dragonrider was holding out his hand for Yuuri to grab.  Without thinking Yuuri took the hand and stepped up the dragon’s leg to sit in front of the rider.

“Hold tight!  I haven’t got time to make this smooth.”  With that, the dragon launched itself into the air and flew up away from the deadly rain behind them.

“I’ll take you to safety, but I have to come back!  Take a deep breath, we’re going _between_.”  The rider shouted, and with that the world disappeared into nothingness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise, I know nothing about ballet. 
> 
> I also made up the bit about the rite of passage at southern – although I think that would be a thing they would do.
> 
> I also have a problem with the boys constantly leaning over my shoulder:
> 
> Me: Tries to write
> 
> Viktor (leaning over my shoulder): But I wouldn’t do that
> 
> Me: But, you have to otherwise the plot doesn’t work
> 
> Viktor: Yuuri, she’s being mean to me
> 
> Yuuri (reading a book): I thought you liked excitement Viktor
> 
> …
> 
> Me: Yuuri what would you say in this situation
> 
> Yuuri: I wouldn’t
> 
> Me: *sigh*
> 
> Yuuri also won’t let me write much from his point of view.
> 
> As always and any time, please tell me what you thought either here or on tumblr [@narcissuspseudonarcissus](https://narcissuspseudonarcissus.tumblr.com)


	4. Healing and Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, THANK YOU. Your kudos and comments have been amazing, and I’m just so astonished at the wonderful reception you’ve given this story. Thank you so much, they have really kept me going.

_“Black, blacker, blackest_  
_And cold beyond frozen things._  
_Where is_ between _when there is naught_  
_To life but fragile dragons’ wings?”_  
Anne McCaffrey

Yuuri could count on one hand the number of times he had been _between_ before.  He knew that he would not be able to breathe; he knew that he would not feel or see anything, not the rider nor the dragon.  Why did this time feel so different?  He had forgotten to count.  How long had it been?  The sweat was freezing on him as the cold bit through the, now damp, light clothing he had worn for the walk.  A trip _between_ was only meant to take 10 seconds and you were usually dressed in weyrhide and furs.  He couldn’t remember how long it had been.  He could feel the panic start to rise.

 _You are with us_ , came the voice of the dragon.

Suddenly he could breathe again as they burst back into reality, warmth flooded through him, and he took great gulps of air, his chest still starved from the sprint he had just done.  He began to shake, the strain of the last half an hour taking its toll.  His feet were burning with cold.  He could feel the great dragon beneath him and the rider’s arms firmly clasping around him.  He opened his eyes.  Where were they?  Looking around he saw the bowl of what could only be a weyr; cliffs surrounding them on all sides punctured with cave mouths.  Looking down as they approached the ground he could see people scurrying around and a fairly large lake.

The dragon backwinged and settled on the ground in a clear space.

“Yuuri, Yuuri, are you OK?”  The voice came from behind, somehow familiar.  The dragon’s wings stopped flapping and everything became still.

“Yuuri, you have to get down. I have to go back, I can’t leave my Wing in the middle of Threadfall.”

“V’tor?”  Yuuri said, his voice raw from the run and the cold.  He realized that he was clutching at V’tor’s jacket and tried to pry his freezing fingers free.

“Yes.  But, you must get down.  I’ll be back soon … please, I have to look after my Wing.”

“Here, V’tor, give him to me.  You have to get back.”  A warm, kind voice spoke up.  Yuuri looked down and saw an older blonde woman with a healer’s knot on her shoulder smiling up at him.  He was still trying to get his brain to register everything that had happened in the last minute since he thought he was going to die.  Finally he pulled himself together enough to speak.

“No.  I-It’s OK I can do it.”  Yuuri eased himself onto the ground, but as soon as his feet touched, a stabbing pain shot up from the soles of his feet and he crumpled onto the floor with a sharp cry.

“Go V’tor!  You’re going to be in enough trouble already!”  Yuuri heard the kind voice of the healer commanding V’tor, but he could not lift his head to indicate that he was OK, the pain in his feet was too much.

 _We must fight thread.  We will be back soon, do not worry._ Yuuri sighed and nodded, and another stabbing pain finally sent him sinking into darkness.

~

Yuuri woke gradually.  He was laying on a bed in a darkened room.  The dim light showed that the room was small and empty.  He could feel Vicchan curled up on the pillow beside his head.  His brain finally caught up with what had happened giving him a vivid replay of events.  Gasping, he sat up violently and clenched the front of his shirt in his fist.  The thread, the sprint, the dragon, the flight _between_ and the landing at the weyr all came back in graphic detail.  He controlled his breathing with difficulty.  His feet were aching and seemed oddly restricted so he pulled the cover back, and found that they had been carefully bandaged.  Yuuri went to get out of the bed, but as soon as his feet hit the floor pain shot up his legs and he couldn’t help crying out.  He curled himself back up on the bed, only now noticing the stiffness in his muscles from overuse.  A short while later the door eased open and someone entered the room.

“Oh good.  You’re awake.  I’ve brought you some food, you’re probably hungry.”  Yuuri looked up to see the healer from earlier coming through the door with a tray.  She carefully placed the tray next to the bed and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Did you try to get up?  I heard your cry and came to see if you were alright.  Your feet are in a terrible state and you shouldn’t try to get out of bed yet.  I’m Nerene, by the way.  What’s your name?”

“Y-Yuuri.”  Yuuri’s mouth stumbled over his name and he cleared his throat, rubbing at the front of his neck as if that could ease the soreness.  “How long have I been out?”

“Oh, only a couple of hours.  The wings have only just got back from the Threadfall over the hold.  If you don’t mind me asking, why did V’tor leave his wing in the middle of Threadfall to bring you here?”

Yuuri coughed in embarrassment and Nerene offered him the tray, motioning for him to drink something.  “I was stupid and ended up having to try to out-run thread, I was just lucky that V’tor spotted me.”  Yuuri absent-mindedly dipped the bread into the broth in front of him, suddenly he gasped and dropped the piece of bread.  “Phichit!  I have to tell him I’m OK!”  Yuuri pushed the tray to one-side and tried to get up again, but Nerene held him back with a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s alright, I assume you mean Phichit, the son of Lord Celestino.  We sent a fire lizard with a message to let them know as soon as threadfall was over.  We assumed that you had come from the hold.”  Nerene reassured Yuuri.  “Please eat.  Your little one arrived a short while after you did.  He was frantic; the poor little thing must be exhausted.  I’ll bring him back some meat in a bit.  What’s his name?”

“I called him Vicchan.”  Yuuri smiled down at his bronze fire lizard and started to eat, but his feet were prickling.  “Can I ask you about my feet?”  He said cautiously.

“Of course, my dear.  What do you want to know?”

“Are … did they …” he sighed, unsure how to ask how soon he would be able to get up, and then his brain presented him with further images, what if he couldn’t ever dance again, what if he couldn’t ever walk again.  Before he could work himself up he blurted out.  “When will I be able to walk on them?”

“Well, you ran through your boots, and the skin is very raw in those places.  You have various cuts and blisters, we cleaned the wounds and removed quite a lot of grit that had been forced into your skin.”  Yuuri winced at this.  “But, as long as there is no infection, and I don’t state this lightly, I am a very good healer, you should be up and about again in a sevenday.  We’ll change the bandages every day and see how things are.  Don’t worry dear, you’ll dance again.”  Yuuri looked up in surprise.  Nerene chuckled.  “Oh yes, V’tor came back from the gather and couldn’t stop talking about you.  I thought we’d be seeing more of you soon.”  At this, Yuuri turned a nice shade of red; he could even feel his ears growing hot.  “Now eat!  The food won’t get in your stomach by itself and I’ll go and see about some meat for Vicchan.”  She smiled back at Yuuri as she left the room.

Yuuri felt guilt eating him, because of his stupidity Phichit must have been worried sick, and Vicchan must have hunted for him at the hold worrying them further.  He should send a message as soon as possible.

He had just finished eating when he heard raised voices coming closer.

“By the Egg of Faranth V’tor, what were you thinking?  How could you leave the fight in the middle to go and rescue some stupid idiot who got caught out?” said a gruff voice.  Yuuri winced, wanting to make himself small.  They must be talking about him.

“As I’ve been trying to say Y’kov, it wasn’t my idea!  Makkath suddenly dived for the ground in the middle of the fight; if it hadn’t been for the riding straps I would have lost my seat.  Surely Nirenth is telling you the same.”  V’tor’s voice was tight with suppressed anger.  So, V’tor hadn’t come to his rescue, Makkath had?  Yuuri wasn’t sure how he felt about that.  What could have made the dragon decide to abandon his duty and rescue Yuuri, it wasn’t as if he was anything special?  Who was V’tor angry with?  Yuuri, Y’kov or the dragon?  Yuuri sighed and rubbed at his forehead.

“Nirenth just complacently says that ‘dragons know best’ and won’t say anything more.  Tchh!  What’s so special about this boy that the dragons are ganging up on me?”  Y’Kov’s voice was less angry now, more aggrieved.  V’tor chuckled.

“Makkath won’t say anything to me about Yuuri either, father.  The most I’ve got is that he’s ‘the one’, whatever that means.”

“Gentlemen,” a sharp voice interrupted the conversation.  “If you can’t stop arguing then please go somewhere else.  Yuuri is still injured and your noise outside his door won’t help!”  Nerene’s voice was firm and Yuuri could picture her standing up to the two riders with her arms crossed.  He smiled, but then cringed as he thought back to the argument he had just overheard.  The door swung open and Nerene walked in with a platter of meat.  She looked at Yuuri’s anxious face and smiled at him.

“It’s going to be fine dear, Y’kov is mostly all bluster.  V’tor is his son after all and needs to set an example.  Now, I’ve brought some meat for your little one, he’s probably going to wake up hungry.”

“May I come in?”  A quiet voice asked.  V’tor was peering around the edge of the door.  Yuuri looked at Nerene, not sure what the etiquette was in a weyr.

“Of course, dear.  Just don’t sit near Yuuri’s feet.”

“Thank you, Nerene.  I’m glad you’re the one looking after Yuuri.  You always are the best when someone’s ill.”  V’tor reached over to hug her and kiss her on the cheek.  He then sat on the floor and leant back against the bed.  Yuuri looked up, surprised at the familiarity of the greeting.

“Nerene is my foster mother.  She’s the heart of the weyr.  We would all have died years ago if it wasn’t for her.”  V’tor put his hand on his heart dramatically, but couldn’t stop a small smirk at the corner of his mouth.

“Stop it V’tor!  You and your extravagant compliments!  Well, I’ve brought a lot of meat so there’s enough for Anastasia as well. Where is she?”  Nerene looked around expecting to see the little golden dragon near V’tor.

“Y’kov scared her off with all his shouting.”  V’tor said sourly.  “She’ll be back soon enough.  I’ve never known her to miss out on food!”  There was an awkward silence.

“Well, I’ll be going.  I’m sure you both have a lot to say to each other.  Don’t let him get up!”  With that command to V’tor, Nerene placed the platter on her chair, stood and left the room.

All the shouting had woken Vicchan as well.  He was climbing up Yuuri’s arm projecting hungry emotions to Yuuri.

“Here,” V’tor reached over and grabbing the platter of meat held it out for Yuuri to take some as he sat down on the vacated chair.  Anastasia reappeared, hovering over V’tor’s shoulder, and when he turned his head to look at her she settled in a stately manner on his arm folding her wings and looking at the meat.  V’tor settled himself on the recently vacated seat and started to feed her.

“How are you feeling?”  V’tor asked, after the fire lizards initial cravings had been satisfied.

“Stiff, sore and very, very stupid.”  Yuuri replied slowly, concentrating on feeding Vicchan pieces of meat.  “I’m just glad Vicchan is alright.”  He swallowed.  “I … need to apologise.  I shouldn’t have been out there.  I disrupted your wing and got you and Makkath into trouble.”  As Yuuri spoke his voice got faster.  “I’m so sorry.”

 _We like Yuuri.  He needed help.  I do not see why you were reprimanded.  Do we not fight thread to save people?_  Yuuri gasped, it seemed that he could now hear Makkath even when he was talking to V’tor and not directly to Yuuri.  He looked up at V’tor and then tried to look away quickly to disguise the glance.  V’tor was giving him a puzzled look.  They were both abruptly interrupted by loud complaints from the fire lizards who did not appreciate the pause in their dinner.

“Did you just hear Makkath?”  V’tor asked Yuuri deliberately.

Yuuri did not know what to say.  “Umm, yes?  He first spoke to me when you introduced us at the hold.”

“But, this is amazing, do you know how few people there are who can hear all dragons?”

“I can’t hear all dragons, only Makkath.”

“Still, this is extremely rare Yuuri.  No wonder Makkath saved you.”  V’tor’s eyes were wide and awestruck.  “You need to attend the hatching, as a candidate.”

Yuuri’s mouth thinned and a hard look came into his eyes.  “No. Look V’tor, I would be a useless dragonrider.  I have panic attacks. I’ve worked in the kitchens for a hold my whole life and I’m just a dancer.  There’s no practical use for dancing.  I can’t even outrun thread without being rescued.”  Yuuri had started to visibly shake and tears had gathered in his eyes.  Vicchan crooned at Yuuri and rubbed his little head on Yuuri’s arm.  V’tor stared at him, his hand twitched towards Yuuri as if he wanted to comfort him.

“Yuuri!  That’s not true.  Phichit said that the Masterharper himself basically commanded your parents and the holder to stop you working on anything other than dancing so that you could bring back a lost skill, an artform.  Pern has been in survival mode for thousands of years and we are now only just being able to discover those lost ways to express ourselves.  It’s not useless, not when you give performances like the one at the gather.”  V’tor paused and took a deep breath as if he was unsure of what he was going to say next.  “I also, very much doubt you would have a panic attack when you are bonded to a dragon, they would not allow it.  Have you found that having Vicchan helps?”

Yuuri thought back.  It hadn’t occurred to him before, but since he had impressed Vicchan 5 years ago the panic attacks had lessened in ferocity and frequency.  He looked down at the bronze lizard who was looking back up at him, head resting on Yuuri’s forearm, stomach bulging with food, legs hanging to either side of Yuuri’s arm.

“You’re right.  He has helped.”  Yuuri stroked Vicchan with his free hand and the small dragon sighed and closed his eyes.  Yuuri looked back at V’tor and smiled softly.  “Thank you.  I find it difficult to believe sometimes that what I love to do is worthwhile.”  Anastasia crooned from where she was sitting on V’tor’s shoulder.

“Erm,” V’tor cleared his throat.  “I should be leaving you to sleep.  I’ll come back in the morning and if Nerene allows I’ll help you get to the kitchen caverns for breakfast.”  With that V’tor stood and after gripping Yuuri’s shoulder firmly and smiling he left the room.

Yuuri was left with his mouth slightly open not knowing what to feel.  He couldn’t understand why V’tor was being like this.  Admittedly, ever since Yuuri had met V’tor officially for the first time at the gather he had been very friendly and seemed to go out of his way to make Yuuri comfortable.  Yuuri groaned, could he have been too obvious about having a massive crush on V’tor and the dragonrider was trying to let him down gently?  Unfortunately V’tor’s actions were only making Yuuri’s longing worse, not eliminating it.  He needed to ask Nerene when he would be allowed to return, either to the hold or to the Southern continent.  Until then he just need to be in control of his emotions and calm.  Yes, calm.  He slid down the bed, gave the pillow a satisfying punch and dropped his head onto it, trying to will himself to sleep.

Finally, after much ‘calmness’, Yuuri was about to fall asleep when he heard satisfied chirping coming from the chair.  He opened one eye to find Phichit’s green fire lizard staring at him intently.  As soon as she saw that he was awake she held out a leg with a message attached.  Yuuri groaned, but carefully reached over to untie the message roll and opened it.

_“Yuuri, you idiot!  You scared me half to death this afternoon.  We nearly turned the hold upside down looking for you.  What in the name of Faranth made you go outside before Threadfall?  We were so relieved to receive the message from the Weyr.  You have to reply straight away.  Belle will wait for you to write a message back._

_Phichit”_

Yuuri felt like he’d been shouted at and looked at Belle.  “I’d like to know how I’m supposed to write a message back when I don’t have anything to write with!”  He slumped back on the bed with the message in his hand.  Suddenly, hovering over his face was Phichit’s bronze.

“Oh, hello!  I suppose I didn’t reply quick enough for Phichit.”  Yuuri held up a hand for Gaston to land on, but then noticed a pen tied to his back.  Yuuri laughed.  “Phichit is totally determined.  OK, you had better wait while I write this.”  He scrawled a reply on the back of Phichit’s message saying that he was fine and that Phichit could come and see for himself tomorrow if he could get the dragonrider assigned to the hold to bring him.

His conversation, such as it was, with the lizards had relaxed him finally and after sending them back to Phichit he was able to sleep.

~

The next morning Nerene was finishing re-wrapping the bandages on Yuuri’s feet when V’tor leaned around the door, his face glowing with a heart shaped smile.

“Yuuri!  Good morning, did you sleep well?”  Yuuri couldn’t help but grin back at him.  “I’m here to take you to have some breakfast.  Nerene said that someone needed to carry you as you couldn’t walk yet and here I am!”  Yuuri’s grin immediately froze on his face.

“No, no, no!”  Yuuri eyes widened and he waved his hands frantically as he leaned away from V’tor as far as possible.

“What’s the problem?  You’ll be bored rigid in here, no-one to talk to, nothing to do.”  V’tor looked puzzled at Yuuri’s vehement denial.

“Yuuri, it will help the healing for you to change position and be social.”  Nerene stated firmly.

“I won’t drop you.”  V’tor said.

“I-I wasn’t worried about that.”  Yuuri mumbled.  “OK. I … just, it’s just that I’m already embarrassed enough about being here, without being carried around like some damsel in distress.”

“Is that all!”  V’tor grinned.  “I’ve been telling everyone how fast you ran.  I was really impressed.  You didn’t just give up and cower, you really ran for it.  No one will believe that you’re a damsel in distress.”

Grudgingly Yuuri allowed himself to be picked up in V’tor’s arms, he could feel his face burning in shame and they weren’t even in the kitchen caverns yet.

V’tor deposited Yuuri gently on a bench to one side of the large cavern and helped him slide sideways so that his feet could rest off the floor.

“Hey!  That’s where I sit.”  An angry voice shouted.  Yuuri turned his head to see a small blonde figure stalking up to him.  The boy stood with his hands on his hips, bending over to glare at Yuuri.  “You need to move!  I sit there!”  Before Yuuri could say anything V’tor spoke.

“Yuri!  Good morning!  Nice to see you too!  This is Yuuri.”  He put one finger on his mouth and looked thoughtful.  “Hmm, that’s going to get confusing.  How about we call you Yurio.”

“WHAT!”  Yuri screeched.  “I was here first, you can get that lazy pig to move from my seat!”  He poked Yuuri in the chest.  “You don’t belong here!”

“Now, now, Yurio!”  V’tor said, his voice slightly betraying his annoyance.  “Yuuri here injured his feet and can’t walk, and as there are no set seating arrangements here you’ll just have to sit on the other side for now.”

“Oh!  So you’re the moron who was outside in Threadfall?  Wait … you’re also the one that …” 

“Yuuri!”  C’ris was making his way across the room, a couple of plates piled high with food.  “Good morning, handsome!  V’tor asked me to get enough food for all of us, so here we go.”  C’ris slid the plates onto the table and nudged Yuri out of the way.  The still fuming youngster huffed and rigidly made his way around to the other side of the table.  Yuuri wondered what Yuri had been going to say and tried to watch him surreptitiously.

“Stop staring at me.  Moron!”  Yuuri grinned back at Yuri, he was acting just like a grumpy child whose hair had been rubbed the wrong way.

“I was the one that … what?”  Yuuri asked.

“I may have been a little enthusiastic about your dancing.”  V’tor said quickly, Yuuri groaned.

“He couldn’t stop talking about you, especially after his visit to the hold the day before yesterday.”  C’ris butted in eagerly.  It was V’tor’s turn to look embarrassed now.  Yuuri thought he looked even more attractive with a light blush across the bridge of his nose.

“Stupid idiot.”  Yuri said.

There was a commotion at the entrance to the cavern and they all looked round.

“Yuuri!”  Yuuri turned and looked as Phichit came hurtling towards him.  He held out his hands just in time to avoid being knocked off the bench by Phichit’s enthusiasm.  “We were so worried, when Belle and Gaston returned with your note I couldn’t wait to come.  I nagged M’lin until he agreed to bring me over.”  Phichit settled on the bench beside Yuuri with his arm over Yuuri’s shoulders and grinned at V’tor.  “You hero!  Rescuing my friend like that.”  Phichit bounced on the bench.  “So!  Tell me all!  The despair, the rescue, the romance...”

“What!  No, Phichit!”  Yuuri was dying with embarrassment.  He glanced over to see how V’tor was taking this whirlwind.  He was leaning on the table with one hand supporting his head facing Yuuri and his other hand was over his mouth, but he was obviously smiling at Phichit’s take on the previous day.  Yuuri started to explain about waking up early and walking out to clear his head and then falling asleep in the sunshine.

“Do you realize how far away from the hold you were?”  V’tor asked as he sat straighter.

“I knew it was quite a way as I could only see the hold heights in the distance while I was running.”  Yuuri explained.

“Well when we landed I think you were probably at least 2 miles away from the hold and you’d probably been running for a while by then.”  Yuuri’s jaw dropped.  Even Yuri on the other side of the table was trying not to look impressed.

“I never realized.  I guess I was just lost in thought.”  Yuuri frowned and looked down.  He couldn’t believe that he’d tried to sprint that far, no wonder his feet were in a state.  His mother had been nagging him to get new boots made for a while, and now his lack of interest in anything other than ballet had come back to bite him.

Phichit cleverly extracted the rest of the story from both of them and gently teased him over the course of the morning.

“Well, I promised my father that I’d be back by the afternoon, so I’ll see you soon Yuuri.”  He looked over at V’tor seriously.  “You’d better look after my best friend here mister hotshot dragonrider.  Or else!”  He hugged Yuuri.  “You look after yourself!  That’s an order, I want to see you dancing next time I manage to come.”  Yuuri smiled, he wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve a friend like Phichit, but he was certainly very lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure of the accuracy of my statements about the lore of Pern, one day I might rewrite this with proper research.
> 
> I tried to write this whole chapter from Yuuri’s POV, did V’tor’s growing attraction to Yuuri come across? Oh, Yuuri, you poor unfortunate/oblivious fool.
> 
> Headcanon that Phichit spent a lot of time retrieving files of old fairy tales from the database so his lizards are named after characters from Beauty and The Beast, Belle is pretty and serious, Gaston is full of himself and Prince is nicer than he looks.
> 
> As always, I love to know what you think or just chat generally. Your wonderful comments got this chapter out sooner than I expected. Thank you.


	5. Dancing into Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and comments I’ve received, it really makes my day, you’ve all been so kind and they really do keep me writing.

 

 _“Honor those the dragons heed_  
_In thought and favor, word and deed._  
_Worlds are lost or worlds are saved_  
_From those dangers dragon braved.”_  
_Anne McCaffrey_

 

After he had watched Phichit walk out of the cavern, sweeping M’lin up in his wake to take him back to the hold, the three fire lizards trailing in their wake, Yuuri turned to V’tor and reached out his hand to grasp V’tor’s in thanks.

“I … thank you.”  Yuuri said and smiled at V’tor.

He was just about to mention how he could never thank V’tor enough when a commotion broke out on one of the other tables.  Voices rose over the generally quiet chatter of the lunchtime meal.

“How dare you?”  A woman’s voice shouted.  “I am sick of your obsessive behaviour Georgi!”

Everyone at the table turned to see what was going on, C’ris sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, V’tor groaned and made to get up.  They could not hear what was said in reply, but Yuuri saw a young man with black peaked hair on his knees in front of a strikingly beautiful woman, clutching at her legs.  Yuuri looked back at V’tor questioningly when suddenly there was a loud clatter of a bench against a table.  The woman had pushed the man away hard and sent him reeling back into the bench and table behind.

“You disgust me.  When Scalenth flies, you and your dragon are to come nowhere near the weyr.  I don’t want you touching me ever again.  Do you understand?”

V’tor walked over to the pair seething, Anastasia alert on his shoulder.  How could Georgi let his obsession with Anya become so unprofessional?  Anya, he could understand, her green dragon was close to mating and she was suffering the side effects.  Georgi should have known this and backed off immediately.  By now Georgi was crouching on the floor, virtually incoherent with anguish.  Anya was about to stalk away still incandescent with rage when V’tor stepped in front of her.

“Anya”, he said calmly when he saw the unshed tears in her eyes.  “Before you go, please tell me what happened.”

Anya caught her breath in a half sob before she gritted her teeth and threw back her shoulders.  “I will not put up with being controlled and my every move analysed any more.  I won’t be questioned about where I’ve been and who I’m with when I’m doing nothing wrong.  You need to deal with this V’tor,” Anya stated as she swept her hand around and gestured at Georgi on the floor.  “I can’t.  Not any more.”  She looked him squarely in the eye and crossed her arms.

“Fair enough.  Go and see to Scalenth.”  V’tor said and placed a hand on her shoulder as he walked past Anya towards Georgi.

V’tor crouched down next to Georgi who was still on the floor pulling at his hair.  “Georgi.”  He reached out and gripped Georgi’s shoulder firmly.  “Let’s talk about this in your quarters.”  V’tor stood and beckoned C’ris over.  “Go and get some wine and bring it to Georgi’s quarters, I think he needs a drink.  We’ll meet you there.”  C’ris grimaced and walked over to the wine barrels at the side.  V’tor looked over at Yuuri and mouthed ‘sorry’, he bent down and pulled Georgi off the floor with a hand under his shoulder.  “Come on Georgi. Let’s go.”  V’tor nodded to Georgi’s companions who had been sitting at the table with Georgi and Anya and helped the distraught Georgi away.

Yuuri closed his open mouth and looking over at Yuri who had his head on the table asked, “Does that sort of thing happen often?”

“No!  That sort of thing does not happen often.  Usually riders are sensible enough not to provoke a green rider when their dragon’s proddy.  Stupid Georgi.”  Yuri banged his head on the table.  “I can’t believe these idiots sometimes.  They’re all the same, useless when they’re not riding a dragon.”

Yuuri looked across at the small angry teenager who was so desperate to become a dragonrider on the other side of the table and smiled.

“Yuuri!”  Nerene’s voice called as she walked towards him carrying a bucket.  She saw Yuuri’s worried face.  “Don’t worry about that argument dear, V’tor can be very diplomatic … “ from the other side of the table Yuri huffed in contempt, “… when he tries.  What I came over to tell you is that we expect everyone to work in this weyr and with that in mind we could do with a hand with dinner preparations.”

“Of course!  It’s the least I could do.  What would you like me to do?”

“Well.”  Nerene dumped the bucket down beside Yuuri.  “Tubers need peeling, that’s the first thing, I’ll bring more over when you’ve done these.”

Yuuri barely managed to repress a groan; he’d done this chore far too often back home.  Nerene grinned at him when she saw his face and patted his knee.  Yuri grinned slightly maliciously from across the table.

“There, there, you’ll be up and about in no time and back to dancing instead of peeling tubers.”  Nerene looked over at Yuri who was trying unsuccessfully to disappear into the table.  “You, young man, can come and help carry supplies.”  Yuri groaned and thumped his head on the table again, but pushed himself away from the table to go to work.  Yuuri set to work; at least it was something to do. 

~

“Thank you for your help Yuuri.”  Nerene sipped her klar, which she had brought over for Yuuri together with food for him and Vicchan.  “I’ve asked the weyr craftsmen to get you some crutches, he’ll come and show you how to use them tomorrow morning.  Goodness knows we get enough injuries around here; they’ve made enough of them that we’ve got a pair to fit everyone.”  Nerene fixed Yuuri with a glare and shook her finger in his face.  “This does not mean you are fit to wander all over.  They are to be used to get you from your room to the dining hall or the necessary and no further!”

She sighed.  “We have threadfall early tomorrow morning and I won’t have time to help you like normal.  One of my fosterlings will come to change the bandages and you’ll need to come and to help out with preparations.  While you’re here you will need to work like everyone else.”  Yuuri had followed her finger with his eyes as she gestured while she spoke, nodding at every command with his eyes wide open.

“O … Of course.  I’d be glad to help.”  They spoke for a while about fire lizards and how they were cared for in the weyr while Nerene fed Vicchan and made a fuss over the little dragon.  Yuuri was busy enough for the rest of the afternoon that he didn’t notice the time passing until V’tor came back into the cavern and sat down.

“Georgi has finally fallen asleep.  He can be a little dramatic, but he’s one of the best bronze riders in the weyr.  C’ris is staying with him and we won’t let him flight thread tomorrow, it’s too dangerous when a rider is distracted.  I’ve just come down to see how you’re doing and collect some wine for when Georgi wakes up.”  As V’tor spoke his speech became gradually slower and his gaze kept switching from Yuuri’s face to a point behind Yuuri.

Curiously Yuuri turned his head and followed V’tor’s gaze to where two people were walking towards their table.  The man was heavily built and looked like he was in his sixties whilst the woman was taller, thin and looked extremely forbidding.  Her finely crafted eyebrows were drawn together in a frown of displeasure.  Their postures were rigid and Yuuri noticed that as they passed by, people straightened and conversations became less noisy.  Yuuri swallowed nervously as they approached and V’tor covered Yuuri’s hand with his own in reassurance.  V’tor rose to his feet and faced the couple.

“Y’kov, Lilia.”  He said evenly.  “I’d like you to meet my friend Yuuri.”

As one, they looked down at Yuuri still sitting with his feet propped up on the bench.  Yuuri bit his lip.  This was the weyrwoman and weyrleader.  He had heard Y’kov outside his room arguing with V’tor.  He immediately felt his face colour with embarrassment.

“He…llo,” Yuuri stammered.  “I’m sorry I can’t get up, but I’m very grateful for all the care that your people have given me.  I … I want to apologise for disrupting the weyr and getting V’tor into trouble, just because I was careless.  I want to assure you that nothing like that will ever happen again.”  Yuuri couldn’t clasp his hands together in front of himself, as he wanted to, because Vicchan had fallen asleep on Yuuri’s forearm again, so he placed his free hand on his chest and bowed his head.

Y’kov coughed and looked up to glare at V’tor from under his eyebrows.  V’tor just smirked back.

“Well, it’s good to see that some people around here are polite.”  Y’kov commented sarcastically.  “Yuuri, I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson.  Welcome to the weyr.  I have heard much about your dancing,” he tilted his head in V’tor’s direction who grimaced and turned slightly pink, “and we would appreciate a performance for the weyr in lieu of our hospitality when you are fully fit.  Until then, you are welcome to stay and recover fully.”

Yuuri swallowed, nodded and had opened his mouth agree and to thank the weyrleaders again when Lilia spoke.

“Yuuri, I have been conferring with Kilanth, Nirenth and Y’kov and V'tor.  We also wish you would reconsider your objections to taking part in the hatching.”  She stated.  Yuuri looked up in amazement, his eyes widening and his already heightened colour deepening.  “Do not take this lightly, it is a serious request.”  She nodded sharply at Yuuri and turned away, “come Y’kov!”  Y’kov nodded at both of them and walked away with Lilia.

No one spoke until Y’kov and Lilia were out of hearing distance.

“What the …” Yuri looked over at Yuuri in shock.  “You can’t take part in the hatching, you’re just a stupid dancer, that’s not even a proper harper.”

“Yuri!”  V’tor spoke sharply.  Yuuri just looked down at his hands, Yuri was right, he was no dragonrider, he was just someone who had stumbled across something interesting in the databases.  How did they know anything about Yuuri, well, apart from the dancing, it was obvious from V’tor’s reaction to Y’kov’s words that he had been … what?  Praising Yuuri?  Yuuri lifted his face and looked at V’tor.

“What?  It’s true!  He hasn’t got any fighting experience.  He can’t even walk at the minute!”  Yuri exploded again.

V’tor purposefully turned his back on Yuri and scooted closer to Yuuri on the bench.  He carefully placed a hand on Yuuri’s calf, careful to avoid the bandages on Yuuri’s feet.

“Little Yurio,” he said in a tone deep with sarcasm, nodding his head over to where Yuri sat with a furious expression on his face, “is completely wrong.  The only job we humans have regarding the hatching is to provide enough of a selection of candidates so that the dragons get to choose.  It has been proven time and again that the Dragons know best, and Makkath wants you there.  He obviously told Kilanth or Nirenth, which is why Lilia and Y’kov came over.

_They needed to know.  You will be a good dragonrider.  I told them that you should be at the hatching.  They agreed._

Yuuri’s jaw dropped and V’tor burst out laughing.  “But I haven’t even met Kilanth or Nirenth!”

“What the … I’m am out of here ... you’re all mad!”  Yuri slammed his hand on the table, rose and stalked away.  Vicchan and Anastasia both roused at the noise and movement and grumbled a bit before falling back asleep.  Yuuri smiled down at Vicchan fondly.

V’tor chuckled.  “Ignore him, he thinks it’s some sort of competition.”  Yuuri looked down again, picking restlessly at the bottom of his tunic.  V’tor shifted around Yuuri and sat behind him, leaning round he put his fingers gently under Yuuri’s chin and turned Yuuri’s head to face him.  Yuuri looked up at V’tor and gave a weak attempt at a smile.  He resisted the urge to lean into V’tor for comfort and tried to focus on what had just happened.

“That was ...” Yuuri waved his free hand vaguely, “nerve-wracking.”  V’tor dropped his hand reluctantly and grasped one of Yuuri’s hands.  Yuuri’s mouth was so close, but this was not the time, or the place.

“They’re just the weyrleaders.”  He said with a smile as he stood up reaching for the bottle of wine and glasses.  “You’ll find out that they’re only human, nothing special.”  He raised the bottle and added, “I need to go and give C’ris and Georgi some food and more wine, I’ll see you later, don’t worry about it.”

Yuuri could feel his heart beating harder and looked away from V’tor reluctantly.  He had thought that V’tor was going to kiss him, but he must have been mistaken.  He must not let his stupid fantasies make him do something idiotic, like fling himself on the second most important bronze rider in the weyr in public.

~

A few days later Yuuri woke up and instead of his usually haze, immediately snapped to attention.  Today!  The bandages were coming off today!  Over the last couple of days as the injuries healed, the itching had been ferocious.  Nerene had been rubbing salve in and wrapping them in gradually lighter bandages.  The sheer frustration of enforced idleness and the itching over the last few days had been driving him insane and he had snapped at people a couple of times the previous day.  It hadn’t been helped by the attitude of the small angry teenager who insisted on ‘coming over to make sure you don’t do anything else stupid’ in his own words.

The previous day they had an anxious wait while the weyr emptied out for the dragonriders to fight thread, the weyrfolk bustling around whilst their loved ones risked their lives in the air.  The air of controlled chaos when the first casualty arrived back was intense with people rushing to the aid of the injured dragon and rider.  Yuuri couldn’t help himself, he had contacted Makkath frantic with worry and then despite the dragons reassurance, panicked about deliberately causing V’tor and Makkath injury by distracting them.  It took the combined efforts of Vicchan and Yuri to get him out of the state he worked himself into.  When the riders had returned with no injuries he had nearly tried to run to the cavern mouth, and if it wasn’t for little Yuri holding him back and telling him forcefully what an idiot he was, he would have undone all the good work put in by Nerene.  Yuri certainly had a peculiar attitude towards someone he professed outwardly to dislike.  He smiled, but his train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door and Nerene entered.

“You look happy this morning.”  She said.

“I’m so desperate to get on my feet again.  I can’t wait.”  Yuuri pleaded.

“Alright then, let’s see.”  Nerene kneeled down in front of Yuuri and began to unwrap his feet.  Yuuri could barely sit still and had a hard job to stop twitching.

“There.”  Nerene picked each foot up, prodding and turning them to inspect the healing.  “Well, the good news is that they’re fine.  BUT, you’re not to spend too long on them the first day and you won’t be getting the all clear to go between for a week, not if you’re serious about your dancing.  Here, I had these made to fit you.  They’ve got fur lining to cushion your feet.”  Nerene went to the door and reached down to pick up a pair of weyrhide boots and placed them beside him.  “You know the way to the bathing area now, so I’ll see you for breakfast in the dining hall.”

Yuuri entered the kitchen cavern late, feeling clean for the first time in over a week.  He was able to collect both his and Vicchan’s breakfast by himself and, smiling in satisfaction, he turned to go to his usual seat.

“Yuuri!”  V’tor called his name from across the cavern and waved Yuuri over to sit with them.  Breakfast was lively, Yuuri and V’tor talked mainly about Vicchan and Anastasia, who were preening over all the attention and enjoying themselves immensely.

“Come on! It’s your first day on your feet; you need to get some exercise.  I’ll take you to see the eggs.”  V’tor grabbed Yuuri’s hand and started pulling him out of the cavern, Vicchan squawking and attempting to keep his balance on Yuuri’s shoulder.

“W…wait!  I’m not… I mean,” Yuuri’s brain shut down in confusion and he closed his eyes.  V’tor stopped and looked at him, he caressed Yuuri’s palm with his thumb.  A shiver ran up Yuuri’s arm and his eyes shot open, staring into V’tor’s face.

V’tor swallowed, hardly able to think himself as Yuuri’s huge brown eyes gazed up at him.  “It’s OK,” he said slowly.  “People are allowed to see the eggs.  Kilanth has a reputation for being bad tempered, but as long as we are just looking and treat her with respect, she doesn’t mind.”

V’tor had correctly diagnosed the source of Yuuri’s anxiety and Yuuri found that he was indeed curious to see the eggs.  He had always avoided the weyr back home, irrationally frightened that he would be forced to become a dragonrider.  He knew it didn’t work like that, but sometimes, as Mari said, his brain was his own worst enemy.

“OK?”  Yuuri said nervously and allowed himself to be pulled towards the entrance of the cavern, Vicchan’s tail wrapped firmly around Yuuri’s neck.  Just as they were about to leave a voice rang out.

“V’tor!  Gently, I didn’t go to all the trouble of healing Yuuri’s feet so that you could drag him all over the weyr!”  Nerene’s voice, nevertheless, had a smile in it.  V’tor grinned down at Yuuri and suddenly before Yuuri could move V’tor had swept Yuuri up in his arms and was carrying him bridal style.

“Put me down!  V’tor!”  Vicchan was flitting around them not knowing what to do and Anastasia reared back on V’tor’s shoulder flapping her wings to keep balanced.

“Why Yuuri?  I need to keep you off your feet.”  V’tor said innocently, looking down into Yuuri’s furious face.  Yuuri crossed his arms on his chest.

“V’tor,” he stated.  “I need to walk or I won’t be able to dance.  Put.  Me.  Down.”  Yuuri scowled at V’tor until he was placed gently back on his feet, V’tor grinning sheepishly.  Yuuri brushed at his rumpled clothes and straightened his back.

“Well?  What are we waiting for?”  He asked and started walking in the direction of the hatching grounds.  Yuuri walked quickly, reaching a hand up to reassure Vicchan who had come back to Yuuri’s shoulder.  In his head he was completely stunned at how assertive he had been.  What was he thinking?  How could he talk to V’tor like that?  He put his hand up and slowly wiped it down his face, screaming internally at his behaviour.

“…uri, Yuuri!”  Yuuri suddenly realised that V’tor was calling his name and stopped.  V’tor caught up with Yuuri and placed a hand on his shoulder.  Yuuri turned to face him with a guilty look on his face.

“I’m sorry.  I should never have reacted like that.  I should just go.”  Yuuri apologised and turned to walk back to the kitchen cavern, but was stopped when V’tor grabbed both his shoulders.  Vicchan flapped his wings and hissed.  Anastasia cheeped from V’tor’s shoulder and Vicchan subsided.

“No, I apologise.  I stepped over the line.”  V’tor said urgently, how could he make Yuuri understand.  The younger man had somehow, in the week they had known each other, become very important to V’tor and he couldn’t let go, he couldn’t bear to see Yuuri walk away from him.  V’tor looked down at Yuuri for a long moment and then removed his hands from Yuuri’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think.  I … please, come with me.”  V’tor said ruefully, pushing his fringe back.  “I was a little too enthusiastic with you being able to walk again.  Please?”

Yuuri nodded and turned to walk beside V’tor into the large cavern mouth at the end of the weyr.

Yuuri had never been in the hatching grounds of a weyr before.  The long entrance tunnel – wide enough and high enough to fit a flying dragon gave way to an enormous cave.  The sandy floor was hot underfoot; even through the weyrhide boots Nerene had given him that morning.  At the other end was the clutch of eggs with the golden queen egg separated from the others, and behind them all was one of the largest dragons Yuuri had ever seen.  Kilanth was dozing and had opened one eye to fix V’tor and Yuuri with a glare.  Yuuri swallowed, his gaze sliding away nervously from the queen.  He looked up at the tiers of seating surrounding the sides of the cave, which then turned into ledges higher up where the dragons would watch the hatching above the audience.

Yuuri clutched V’tor’s hand and whispered, “it really doesn’t feel like we should be here.”

V’tor squeezed Yuuri’s hand back and pulled him forward.  As they came closer to the eggs, Kilanth opened both eyes and regarded them steadily.

V’tor bowed to the dragon and said “Kilanth, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Yuuri, who I want to persuade to become a rider, may I show him your clutch?”  Kilanth rumbled and lifted her head in assent.  “No one except the candidates for the hatching is allowed to touch the eggs.”  V’tor explained.

Yuuri looked at the speckled eggs that were almost as high as his shoulder and then at the larger golden queen egg.

“Tell me what happens at a hatching?”  Yuuri asked.  “No, tell me on the way out as my feet are beginning to hurt from the heat – and no, I don’t want to be carried!”  Yuuri bowed deeply to Kilanth, who settled and then turned with V’tor to leave.  V’tor pouted, but acquiesced.

“We know roughly when the eggs are about to hatch and when the hatching is imminent the dragons just know.  All the candidates are dressed in the hatching robes and taken to the hatching grounds.  The candidates gather round the eggs and as each one hatches, the dragon makes its way to their rider, no one knows how the dragon chooses the rider but most of the time it works out.  That’s all there is to it.”  V’tor shrugged as they walked back out of the cavern, but the expression on his face was wistful as he remembered Makkath’s hatching.

Yuuri looked up at V’tor and at the small smile on his face and felt a pang of envy. He was reminded of when he impressed Vicchan and put his hand up to stroke the little dragon on his shoulder.

“What was it like?  When you impressed Makkath?”  Yuuri asked.

“Well, I was a fairly small 12 year old, and I had long hair.  I was …” V’tor laughed and shook his head.  “I think obsessed would be a good term, yes, obsessed with becoming the best dragonrider there ever was, there would be ballads sung about me and people would fall over as I walked past.”  Yuuri choked with laughter and punched V’tor lightly on the arm.  “Ow!  You’ve hurt my delicate feelings Yuuri.”  V’tor rubbed his arm and pretended to flinch away from Yuuri.

“So there I was on the hatching ground, my first ever hatching.  The eggs were taller than I was.  There were a lot of other boys surrounding the eggs; they were all taller than me, older and physically stronger.  The dragons were humming from the sides of the cavern and the eggs were rocking.  Kilanth was terrifying; all the candidates kept glancing over at her wondering if she was going to let us impress any dragonlings.  All the eggs seemed to hatch at once, it all happened so quickly.  Dragons paired off with their riders and I remember thinking that I shouldn’t have been there, that I was too young and small to be a dragonrider, and then there was this voice, in my head going ‘ _why are you too small?_ ’ and I looked up and Makkath was in front of me.”  Yuuri could see that V’tor had tears in his eyes now.

“I reached out to him and that was it.  Impression.”  V’tor continued in a softer voice.  “I couldn’t imagine being without him now or ever.”  Yuuri swallowed past the lump in his throat.  The bond between rider and dragon seemed to be so much deeper than the one he had formed with Vicchan.  Maybe he should think about Lilia’s request to become a candidate?

~

Over the next day or two Yuuri gradually spent more and more time on his feet and exercised rigorously to regain his fitness level, in between helping and learning a few healing skills from Nerene.  He also tried to keep out of V’tor’s way as much as possible, he knew it was irrational, but he needed space to think, everything seemed to be happening too quickly.  He buried himself in ballet, trying not to think about anything else.

Nerene had found a spare room in the weyr that he could use as a dance studio and he spent hours practicing.  He would not be allowed to return home until Nerene allowed him to fly between and until then he could not learn more from AIVAS, besides the weyrleaders had requested a performance and after the kind treatment from everyone in the weyr, how could he refuse.

~

V’tor walked silently up the corridor towards the room where Nerene had said that he would find Yuuri.  He hadn’t seen Yuuri for days apart from meal times and the urge to hold Yuuri in his arms was becoming hard to resist.  He heard faint humming and cautiously looked into the room where Yuuri was practicing.  He tried to stay out of Yuuri’s line of sight, not wanting to disrupt his concentration.

Yuuri was running through the routine he had performed at the Gather.  His week of inactivity had not seemed to affect his dancing at all but seemed to have increased the emotion in his movements.  Every gesture spoke of longing.  V’tor was captivated once again.  He eased back into the shadows not wanting to interrupt Yuuri.  The light of the glows highlighted Yuuri’s movements and added mystery and romance.  V’tor wanted to take Yuuri by the hand and guide him in a completely different dance.

Yuuri came to a stop breathing heavily with his right hand on his heart and his left arm pointing to the open door straight to where V’tor was standing in the shadows.  V’tor stepped forward into the light from the glows.  Yuuri’s breath caught and his eyes widened as V’tor came towards him.

“That was truly magnificent Yuuri.  I can’t wait to see the reactions of the weyr when you dance that for them.”  Yuuri dropped his hands from the final position and looked down.

“It’s still not perfect.  I have so much to work on.”  He mumbled.

V’tor reached out and gently raised Yuuri’s chin with his hand.  “Your dancing is incredible.  You, are incredible.  That was even better than the time when you performed at the gather.  You move gracefully and fluidly, like a dragon in flight.”  Yuuri’s large brown eyes stared into V’tor’s as his jaw dropped in surprise and V’tor couldn’t help gently stroking Yuuri’s lower lip with his thumb.

His hand moved to cup Yuuri’s jaw and Yuuri’s breath caught as their lips met.  Yuuri’s mind dissolved into chaos as fire shot through his body.  He felt a yearning to move closer and was about to respond when V’tor broke the kiss and moved away.  Yuuri just stood there, he couldn’t even think of a coherent sentence.  

“I apologise,” V’tor said.  He looked at the glows around the room and then back at Yuuri.  “I couldn’t help it, I won’t do it again.”  He turned abruptly and walked away to leave the room.

“No!”  Yuuri shouted, and then coughed.  “I didn’t, I wasn’t.”  He stopped and took a breath.  “I liked it.  I couldn’t think clearly.  Please don’t go!”  Yuuri could feel his face burning bright red.  He put his hands over his eyes so that he didn’t have to see V’tor’s reaction.  He heard steps and gentle hands grasped his wrists and softly tugged his hands away from his face.  He looked up slowly, unsure of V’tor’s reaction.

“You burst into my life, and nothing can ever be the same again.”  V’tor stated quietly, taking Yuuri in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it and I love to receive comments, or come and talk to me on my tumblr [@narcissuspseudonarcissus](https://narcissuspseudonarcissus.tumblr.com)
> 
> A proddy dragon is usually used to describe a green dragon who is about to mate. Their riders are renowned for being incredibly quick tempered, quick to anger and irrational and allowances are made by all weyrfolk. That’s just how dragons are.
> 
> Glows are the fire safe lights that are used in Pern. It is never explained what they actually are beyond some sort of bioluminescence.


	6. Victory over Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The angst-train has arrived in town, I'm sorry.  
> I do not condone non-consensual sex in any shape or form. Consent is vital.  
> The mildly dubious non-con is between the **** if you don’t want to read it, it is not explicit otherwise I would have changed the tags.

_“Don’t leave me alone!_  
_A cry in the night,_  
_Of anguish heart-striking,_  
_Of soul-killing fright.”_  
Anne McCaffrey

As they burst into the air above southern hold, the heat hit them with intensity.  V’tor looked around with renewed interest.  He had only been here once before to meet the weyrleaders at Landing some distance inland.  Yuuri pointed down towards the sea where a beautiful cove stretched round to a small harbour on one end.

“Most people land on the beach, the dragons seem to prefer it.”  He shouted over the wind blowing past.

Makkath angled his flight path to come to rest on the hot sand and let out a comfortable rumble as he allowed his belly to sink into the heat.  V’tor laughed.  “I think you’re right!”  Makkath just whiffled in reply.  Vicchan and Anastasia settled on Yuuri and V’tor’s shoulders as they walked towards the hold.

V’tor had persuaded Yuuri to visit his home a few days earlier after their encounter in Yuuri’s practice room.  He was gradually coaxing Yuuri out of his shyness, which V’tor didn’t understand at all.  It was like Yuuri was three different people; the shy, anxious, normal Yuuri, the performer Yuuri who was beautiful and untouchable, and the drunk Yuuri who was sex incarnate.  Yuuri was getting increasingly nervous about his upcoming performance and V’tor suggested a visit home to review his routine with Minako, as she had been the person most involved with Yuuri’s research and learning.  The only time V’tor had been south was for a weyrleader briefing on the latest discoveries from AIVAS, and there had been no time to explore.  He had only caught sight of the glorious scenery near Landing, which unfolded as Makkath came down to land with the sea sparkling in the distance.  This time V’tor wanted to find out more about Cove Hold itself.

They walked up to the main hold building a short distance from the beautiful beach.  Yuuri had sent Vicchan ahead to let his family know that they had arrived.  He saw his parents, Mari, and Minako gathered at the entrance to the building and could barely contain himself.  He grabbed V’tor’s hand and pulled him urgently towards the large veranda surrounding the building.  It felt like he hadn’t seen them in months.

V’tor watched from the side as Yuuri pulled to a stop in front of his mother and grinned widely.

“Mother, Father, Minako, Mari,” Yuuri said in one breath.  “This is V’tor, he saved me when I was caught outside the hold during threadfall.”

“So you said in the notes you sent us, Yuuri.”  His mother turned to V’tor and bowed, “thank you for saving our son, my lord.  We are very grateful.  You can call me Hiroko and my husband is Toshiya.  This is Minako, who is the harper in charge of the AIVAS archives and a friend of the family, and Yuuri’s sister Mari.”

V’tor gave a wide smile and a small bow.  “You’re welcome, Pern would have been far worse off if Yuuri was not alive to astound us all with his dancing, and I would have been far worse off for never having met Yuuri.”  With that V’tor placed his hand on Yuuri’s shoulder and gave Yuuri a fond look.  Minako and Mari exchanged glances and Yuuri coloured up to his hairline.  His mother smiled at V’tor warmly and beckoned them inside.

“We are very pleased to welcome you my lord.”  She said to V’tor.  “Our family quarters are not large, so I hope you don’t mind if we have allocated you a room in the guest quarters?”

“I wouldn’t want to be any trouble, I can share a room with Yuuri.”  V’tor replied.  Yuuri’s face coloured again and he spluttered.  Hiroko looked between the two and noticed the adoring way V’tor looked at Yuuri, and the way Yuuri returned the look shyly amidst a bright red face.  She narrowed her eyes.

“Yuuri would be fine giving up his bed for a night or two, wouldn’t you Yuuri.  You know where to find the extra bedding.  Please make sure that you show your guest around the hold Yuuri.”  Hiroko pinned Yuuri with a fierce but smiling look.  “We must get back to our duties, thank you once again, my lord.”  Hiroko said with a bow and turned back into the house with her husband.

“So you finally decided to come back, huh?”  Mari stated.

“I’m only on a visit for a day or so, V’tor can’t be spared from his duties for long.”

“Well, it’s good to have a dragon around, you can earn your keep by going hunting tomorrow.  Show V’tor some of the coastline and look for Wherries.”  Mari said laconically.  She turned and went inside.

“Would you like me to show you round while Makkath bathes in the cove?”  Yuuri asked quietly.  After a peaceful tour of the hold, they came to the beach.  Yuuri suggested a swim and they were quickly joined by the fire lizards and Makkath who played in the warm water of the cove, diving in and generally making a spectacle of themselves.  Yuuri and V’tor fell to scrubbing Makkath’s hide with sharp sand while he blew bubbles under the water in pleasure.

As they walked to the hold for the evening meal, the fire lizards curled up asleep on the sands with Makkath, V’tor reached for Yuuri’s hand.  Yuuri tightened the grip and pulled V’tor to a halt.  “Thank you for suggesting this V’tor.  It is just what I needed.” Yuuri’s cheeks were slightly pink and he looked down.  V’tor reached out with his other hand, pushed Yuuri’s chin back up with his fingers and brushed his thumb across Yuuri’s lower lip.  Yuuri’s deep brown eyes fixed on V’tor’s, who sighed, and leaned forward to gently press his lips to Yuuri’s.

He rested his forehead against Yuuri’s, “Yuuri, you were very lucky to grow up here.  The hold and your parents are lovely.  No wonder your dancing is so inspirational, you have all this beauty at your doorstep.  The weyr is very cold and unforgiving in comparison.”  V'tor closed his eyes, "I envy you."

~

The next morning they persuaded Makkath to stop sunbathing so that they could go out hunting.

“Mari said that there were flocks of Wherries gathering to the west of here so we should head that way.  There’s also a little cove I know of where we can prepare the meat and relax afterwards.”  Yuuri told V’tor.

“Sounds like a good plan, Yuuri.  Makkath could do with hunting for himself as well.”  V’tor gave Yuuri a stunning smile and Yuuri's breath caught.

“It’s going to be a very lazy hunt for me – with a dragon along to help!”  Yuuri laughed as V’tor extended a hand to help Yuuri climb up Makkath and sit behind him, Yuuri treasured the closeness as he placed his arms around V’tor’s waist.  The two fire lizards circling over them and then settling on their shoulders.

“OK Yuuri, now can you visualise the area where the Wherries are so that Makkath can take us there?”

Yuuri gulped.  He had sent Vicchan on missions using visualisation, but this was a dragon and two humans.  Makkath rumbled and he caught the dragon’s amusement.

 _You have already sent me clear images on a number of occasions; I do not see why you are worried._ V’tor laughed at Makkath’s comment and Yuuri gulped, concentrating hard on sending the clearest image of the river and surrounding meadow that he could.

They burst into the sky over the meadows along a broad river.  The hot air flowed around them, taking away the freezing cold of _between_ , as Makkath glided around looking for a convenient place to land.  The fire lizards took off from their shoulders and started circling overhead.

Yuuri shouted to V’tor, “Land well away from the river, the Wherries are most likely to be near there and we don’t want to scare them off just yet.  V’tor checked that Makkath had heard Yuuri’s instruction and then looked over the landscape as Makkath glided down.  A herd of runner beasts was running away from the shadow the dragon cast, the whole scene lush and verdant, beautiful to V’tor’s eyes, unlike the Northern continent.

Yuuri shouted again “After we land let Makkath go and hunt, we’ll see how many he manages to catch.  We may not need to do more than prepare the meat afterwards!”

 _I can catch many._   Makkath interjected, with a prideful note in his mental voice.   _How many of the birds do you need?_

Yuuri laughed.  The dragon exuded confidence.  “We only need two or three Makkath, they’re big birds.  Help yourself to what you need.”

_I am hungry.  I will hunt for you, then eat._

Makkath backwinged gracefully to land and V’tor and Yuuri slipped off.

“Go my friend!” V’tor said. “Quick clean kills.”

V’tor looked at Yuuri, “I haven’t seen him this excited in a while.  He wants to do well for you.”  Yuuri coloured and looked away.

They sat on the slightly elevated ground and watched Makkath hunt.  He was efficient, and caught and dispatched each bird quickly, disturbing the flock as little as possible.  Once it was obvious that he had finished, the two men walked over and began to gather and truss the birds.

“That was the easiest hunt I’ve ever taken part in!  Thank you Makkath.”  Yuuri said gleefully.  “I know of a cove on the way back to the weyr, we won’t have to go _between_ , Makkath can sleep off his meal and we can bathe.”

“That sounds amazing.”  V’tor said with eager eyes, Makkath rumbled his agreement.  They quickly strapped the birds to Makkath’s harness and he lifted them into the air.

~

The beach was just about big enough for a dragon, two people and two fire lizards.  The smooth sand curved around the small bay to the rocks at each end.  One single rock was exposed in the middle of the bay.  Victor and Yuuri were sweaty and tired after the hunt.  Yuuri helped unstrap Makkath’s riding gear, who, as soon as he was free, lumbered straight into the sea with the two fire lizards screeching and diving around him.  V’tor and Yuuri grinned at the antics of the dragons and picking up the dead bird walked over to where an old fire-pit had been used in the past.

“Before we eat, do you want to swim?  The water’s perfectly save here, it’s the beaches that are dangerous during the firehead fever season.”  Yuuri said.

V’tor grinned, raised his eyebrows and started stripping.  Yuuri coloured at first and then grinned back mischievously as he put his hand up to take off his tunic.

“Race you to the rock?”  Yuuri yelled as he tore off his clothes.  V’tor was, at first, surprised and then raced to do the same.  He tore into the warm water and dived after Yuuri.  Yuuri had already hauled himself up onto the rock before V’tor reached it.  V’tor looked up at the gorgeous man grinning down at him.

“Not fair, you had a head start.”  V’tor gasped.  He reached out with one hand as if he wanted Yuuri to help him up onto the rock as well, but as soon as Yuuri had grabbed his hand V’tor gave a hard pull and toppled him off into the water.  He laughed as he swam a couple of metres away.  Yuuri surfaced with a gasp and pushed his hair back away from his face, laughing as well.  V’tor’s breath caught, this man was impossibly attractive.

“Well, you’ll just have to race me back to the beach then!”  Yuuri challenged.  He immediately launched into a fast crawl back towards the shore.  V’tor managed to keep up this time and they both reached the sand together, panting hard.

They sat by the newly made fire, plucking the wherry.  As Yuuri removed the skin he noticed that V’tor was distracted.  He kept running his fingers round his neck as if he was wearing a collar that was too tight, and was looking peculiarly at Anastasia.  The fire lizard’s skin was almost glowing and she was staring at the dead Wherry intently, her wings slightly extended.  Yuuri frowned and almost absent-mindedly gutted the Wherry and threw the entrails to her.  She pounced and began to tear into the bloody mess.  Yuuri glanced over at Vicchan who was watching Anastasia intently his eyes whirling.

*******

Oh, Yuuri understood, Vicchan had taken part in mating flights before and he was usually very successful – to Yuuri’s enduring shame.  Yuuri had learned to recognise the signs and made sure that he was on his own away from people before he could embarrass himself.  He knew that weyrfolk treated it differently and V’tor must have taken part in dragon mating flights before now.  Yuuri had never thought this would happen.  He looked at V’tor, who was looking increasingly troubled.

“V’tor,” he said gently, trying to get the words out over his clouded mind from Vicchan’s intense emotions, “Anastasia is blooding her kill, and I haven’t seen any other fire lizards around so Vicchan is probably going to be the one to fly her.”

“I know.”  V’tor’s voice was hoarse.  “I’m sorry Yuuri. I … I never thought it would happen like this, I … I want you, I need you.”  He looked up at Yuuri, his blue, so blue eyes, gazing longingly into Yuuri’s.

Yuuri reached over for the bottle of oil he had been using on the fire lizards earlier, he gently touched V’tor’s arm.

“It won’t be forced V’tor.  I want this as much as you.”  Yuuri took V’tor’s head in his hands and slowly, deliberately let their lips touch.  As soon as they touched Anastasia screeched her defiance at Vicchan and took off, Vicchan in close pursuit.  V’tor struggled to stay in his own mind as Anastasia flew, fast and strong, screeching defiance at Vicchan following behind.  She was invincible.  That pathetic scrap of a lizard could never catch her, and she flew and revelled in her power.  V’tor was one with Anastasia but could also feel Yuuri’s skin against his, kisses being placed on his chest.  Anastasia looked behind at Vicchan who was much closer, suddenly he maneuvered close to her and twined his neck around hers holding them both, joined in the air.

*******

Yuuri slowly woke up.  The fire was crackling gently near him on the beach and V’tor was bent over, roasting the remains of the Wherry.  Anastasia and Vicchan had returned and were curled together asleep on a pile of clothes near the fire.  Looking at V’tor’s bare muscled back, Yuuri let out a groan.  V’tor instantly looked over and gave Yuuri a worried look, running a hand nervously through his hair.

V’tor blushed, “Are you OK? I’m so sor…”

“I’m surprised, that’s all.”  Yuuri interrupted, reaching out one hand to V’tor.  “I didn’t expect … I never thought …” he trailed off, unable to express his thoughts.  He sat up fully and pushed one hand through his hair.  V’tor placed the food to one side and moved next to Yuuri, taking Yuuri's hand in his and kissing the knuckles.

“You don’t mind?”  Yuuri asked.

“Mind? I’ve been trying to get in your pants for weeks!  Ever since that evening at the hold when you got drunk and you hugged me and told me that you love me.”  V’tor laughed and then saw Yuuri’s horrified face.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t remember that evening.  I … I tend to lose track when I’ve had too much to drink.  Oh shards!  What else did I do?  Please tell me I didn’t do anything embarrassing in front of the whole hold!  And then I went and got caught out in Threadfall!  I can never go back!”  Yuuri was bright red at this point and had his hands covering his flaming cheeks.

“Yuuri!  Yuuri!”  V’tor placed his hands over Yuuri’s and stroked his thumbs over them.  “You were beautiful.  You danced for everyone and it was amazing!  Everyone loved you.”  V’tor smiled his beautiful heart shaped smile and Yuuri lowered his hands, leaning forward to put his head on V’tor’s shoulder.

V’tor shook his head and laughed ruefully, bringing his arms up around Yuuri.  “If you only knew the plans I was making for your seduction, only to be scuppered by a pair of randy fire lizards.”  Yuuri laughed in relief, turning his head to kiss V’tor deeply.

~

“So, I see you’ve got yourself a gorgeous guy!”  Minako commented with a sly grin the next day, as they sat on the steps leading up to the verandah, watching V’tor sitting in the curve of Makkath’s huge body, tending to the harness, checking it over for cracks and faults.

“Minako!  Shhh!”  Yuuri gestured frantically with one hand and covered his eyes with the other, blushing.  The fire-lizards were curled up sleeping in between the dragon’s forearms, still exhausted from the previous day.  Minako grinned widely, she had hauled Yuuri away from V’tor’s side that morning after breakfast claiming that he needed show her that his injuries hadn’t affected his ballet.

“What?  Enjoy it Yuuri.  Life on Pern is hard and he has a dangerous calling.”  Minako said seriously as she pulled on his arm to drag him to the room they used for dancing practice.

“Minako?”  Yuuri faltered, he wasn’t sure how to continue.  He wasn’t sure what he needed to ask or even whether Minako had the answer he was looking for.  Minako raised an eyebrow.  “The weyrleaders asked me to be a candidate at their next hatching.”

“And your problem?”

“I … I …” Yuuri faltered.  He problem was his anxiety, his lack of confidence in everything he did, how could he even begin thinking about a dangerous occupation like fighting thread.  But, the connection to a dragon, so much more than he had with Vicchan at the moment, who was just a little bundle of emotions.  There was no doubt V’tor was right, the frequency of his panic attacks had lessened considerably since impressing Vicchan, in fact, that was one of the reasons his parents had made the effort to obtain an egg from a fire-lizard clutch, in the hope that the bond would be good for Yuuri’s anxiety.  Maybe with the stronger bond formed with a dragon, he could be the brave person he had always hoped to become, rather than the nervous wreck he had been and still partially was today.

Minako had watched Yuuri’s face go through a variety of emotions and finally leaned over and shook Yuuri’s shoulder, “hello, calling Yuuri!”

“I’m sorry!  I guess I’m scared,” Yuuri looked down at his hands.  “I’m worried that I won’t be able to cope during Threadfall and someone will get hurt and it will be my fault!”  He looked up at Minako, his face twisted with anxiety.

“Yuuri, I told your parents years ago that they were wrong to prevent you from going out alone.  You are a lot braver than you think you are.  It’s not wrong to worry.  I think you should go, be a candidate and see what happens.  I believe in you, after all you’re my best pupil.”  Minako smiled.  “Go, and enjoy being the centre of attention at the weyr for a while.  Give them a treat with your dancing.  You can do it!  Now, show me your routine.”  With that she gestured into the room and pushed Yuuri forward.

~

Yuuri put his hands on his knees and panted. Minako had made him run through the dance routine so many times he’d lost count.  She corrected every slightly wrong movement and made him do it until it was perfect again.  Yuuri heard clapping over the pounding in his ears and looked up.  V’tor was standing in the doorway leaning on the frame with a wide grin.

“Well done!  That was as beautiful as the first time I saw you dance it, maybe even better.”  He exclaimed.

Minako smiled and nodded.  “I think being at the weyr has added elements that weren’t there before Yuuri, it’s good.”  Yuuri wiped at his sweaty forehead and sighed.

“I do feel better about it now, thanks Minako.”

The meal with his parents, Mari and Minako that evening was boisterous and fun.  His parents recalled various embarrassing incidents from Yuuri’s childhood, which V’tor listened to with delight, his hand resting on Yuuri’s thigh most of the time rubbing his thumb up and down.  Yuuri could barely think straight.  Yuuri told them about the request from the weyrleaders and they told Yuuri how proud they would be of him becoming a dragon rider much to Yuuri’s surprise.

They walked out onto the veranda holding hands and watched the sun set over the far side of the cove.  V’tor cradled Yuuri in his arms and said, “This is a beautiful place, I understand why you miss it so much.”  He smiled and kissed Yuuri on the forehead.  “We should be getting back, there’s Threadfall tomorrow and Makkath could do with a rest beforehand.”

“Of course.”  Yuuri said.  “I’ll gather our things and be back as quickly as possible.  I’ll say goodbye to my parents.”  Yuuri went back into the hold and stopped at the entrance to the kitchens.  His father was hugging his mother from behind and she was giggling.  He felt his heart clench, his emotions jumbled up and he couldn’t speak for a bit.

“Mum, Dad?”  His parents jumped and with a fond look at each other, pulled apart.  “It’s time for us to go back.”

“Yuuri.  You know that whatever you decide, whether it’s to continue dancing or take part in the hatching, we’ll be proud of you.” His mother came over to him and bounced slightly on her feet.

“I know Mum, thank you.”

~

Both V’tor and Yuuri shivered in the chill of the night air as they came out of between at the star stone of the weyr.  The air felt so much colder here after two days in the balmy heat of the south.  Yuuri buried his face in the back of V’tor’s weyrhide jacket.

“I don’t know if I can put up with the weather here if I become a dragonrider V’tor!”  He moaned after they had landed back on the ledge to V’tor’s weyr.  V’tor laughed and took his hand.

“That’s not going to be a problem, Yuuri.  I have been assigned to the new weyr on the west side of the Southern continent, and as part of the bargain I made with Y’kov, I can take whoever I need with me.  Yuuri, please come with me and be my partner.  If I have to go and be weyrleader somewhere else then I need you with me.”  V’tor raised Yuuri’s hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. Yuuri’s jaw dropped in shock.

“Why didn’t you tell me this?  Weyrleader?”

“Because I didn’t know that it would help you decide until just now.  I wasn’t even sure you would want to come with me until yesterday.”

“I … V’tor you …” Yuuri’s brain flailed around in shock.  He pulled his hand away from V’tor’s and turned away slightly.  Moving to the Southern continent was one thing, but weyrleader?  Yuuri took a deep breath and tried to choose his words carefully.  “V’tor, the weyrleader has responsibilities.  You can only become weyrleader if Makkath mates with the Queen.  If I impress a dragon it certainly won’t be the queen.  How will the weyrwoman feel?  I’m not sure I can cope with that.”  Vicchan picked up on Yuuri’s growing distress and rubbed his head along Yuuri’s cheek.

“Yuuri, this is not the first time a weyrleader has loved someone other than his queen rider and it won’t be the last.  If it’s any comfort I don’t like it any more than you do.  When Y’kov told me that this was my destiny I was furious.  I denied the possibility, but with you there, beside me, I feel that anything is possible.”

“You … you love me?”

“Yes, Yuuri, I love you.  I never want you to leave my side.”

“I thought that was just … “ Yuuri waved his hands “Vicchan and Anastasia.  You’ll grow tired of me soon, I’ll probably impress a blue dragon, if I impress a dragon at all and you won’t need me.”

“Well, blue is certainly your colour Yuuri.”  V’tor said with a grin.  “I don’t care what colour dragon you impress, they are all important for Pern.  Makkath seems to think you are important in more ways than just impressing a dragon no matter the colour.  I just want to be with you.”  V’tor took Yuuri’s hand again, gently, allowing Yuuri to pull away if he wanted, and pulled Yuuri into his embrace.  “Stay with me, here, tonight Yuuri. I’ll show you how compatible we are when our minds aren’t clouded by a dragon’s mating lust.”

Yuuri blushed and quietly said, “Yes.”

~

Yuuri woke up with his head resting on V’tor’s chest.  He felt content, something that he hadn’t felt in a long time.  He thought back to the previous day’s conversation.  He didn’t want this to end, but he didn’t know if he could stand to one side and share V’tor with someone else, now that they had got to this point.  He sighed, why not just enjoy this, whatever this was for now.  He could make a decision later.  Maybe after the hatching?  V’tor’s hand started to stroke Yuuri’s hair.

“We have to get up, there’s threadfall in a couple of hours.”  V’tor yawned, “you promised to help Nerene and I have to get my wing ready.”

Yuuri sighed again, not wanting to leave the comfort of V’tor’s arms and hugged V’tor tighter.

After much groaning and protesting they had both made their way down to the kitchen cavern where V’tor pulled Yuuri into his arms, to Yuuri’s shame as from the other end of the cavern where V’tor’s wing was gathered there was a series of whistles and yells.  Yuuri was immediately hauled off to help the healers prepare for the aftermath of threadfall.  There were always injured dragons and riders; either not careful enough or taking stupid risks.

They gathered at the entrance to the kitchen caverns where they could watch the wings assemble.  Yuuri had never seen this before, the last fall he had been trapped by his injuries inside.  Each wing took off in turn, in formation and rose to form a ‘V’ shape in the sky, centering on the star stone, virtually blocking out the light.  Suddenly the sky was empty, all the dragons gone between to the location of threadfall.  The silence was heavy for a moment and then the weyrfolk began to move to complete their allotted tasks.

Yuuri was set to work carrying supplies out to the area designated for treating injuries.  As he worked he could hear Makkath giving him a running commentary about the fight.  The dragon’s dry tone and formal speech patterns made Yuuri smile as he worked.

Suddenly there was nothing.  Makkath’s presence had gone.  Yuuri held his breath and counted, it takes 10 seconds for the trip between.  8…9…10...

 _We are here! He has a small threadscore.  We carry on._  

Yuuri came back to himself and saw the healer’s assistant looking at him quizzically. Yuuri blushed and said, “Ah…erm…V’tor has a small threadscore and they had to go between.  They’re OK though.”  The healer’s assistant whose name Yuuri could not recall, bent down and retrieved the pot of salve that Yuuri had dropped in his shock.  He handed it back to Yuuri with a small grin and a wink.  Yuuri blushed even brighter, ducked his head and carried on with arranging the healing equipment.

It was nearing the end of threadfall, the wings should be back any time.  Only one dragon and rider had returned too injured to continue fighting so far.  Yuuri had finished the work he was needed for and was sitting with a mug of Klah feeding Vicchan, whilst listening to Makkath commentating the fall.

 _We are …_ Yuuri gripped the table, but Makkath wouldn’t break off in the middle of a sentence.  It was just another small threadscore – another one?  V’tor prided himself on the lack of injuries in his wing, what was going on, was his relationship with Yuuri distracting him?  Count, Yuuri, count, but Yuuri’s mind was blank, he hadn’t thought to start counting.  Was it more than 10 seconds?  It must be.  He rose to his feet, the plate of raw meat and the mug of klar slipping from his hands.  He shouted with his mind as loud as he could.   _Makkath!_

~

V’tor and Makkath were working as one.  Ducking, diving, flaming, V’tor passing Makkath more firestone.  The sun occasionally shone through the rain of thread where there was a rare clear path to the sky.  The Wing was maintaining good order.  The little fire lizards that had bonded to various riders were flitting around their dragons also destroying any thread they could.

A shadow fell across V’tor and he instinctively ducked at the same time Makkath folded his wings and dropped.  V’tor felt a searing pain across his shoulder, he yelled in pain and Makkath instantly took them between.  V’tor slapped at the source of the pain and felt the worm of thread freeze and break off.  Thanking Makkath, they returned to the formation.

V’tor looked over his Wing again.  Even though the dragons were soaring up to catch thread and diving down they were maintaining their relative positions.  Georgi was off to V’tor’s right and C’ris to his left.  He was keeping a closer eye on Georgi than usual after his break down.  The rider was still not completely stable and prone to outbursts of emotion that left everyone around him drained.

The fall continued; 4 hours in and it was nearly over.  Riders had to duck between to avoid or dismiss threadscore more frequently as they and their dragons tired.  A flame shot above V’tor’s head to the left as C’ris seared a clump nearby, the warm air ruffling V’tor’s hair as it passed.  C’ris raised his hand in apology.  V’tor sent a message to the dragons and riders to be more vigilant and be aware of their fatigue.

 _Felath did not think we had seen the clump, or had time to flame it._   Makkath said.

_I realised that, come Makkath, a little more height, we’re nearly at the end._

V’tor did not feel the flame as it bit into the leather covering his leg.  He just heard Makkath’s scream and felt the searing cold of between.  His leg started to burn with cold.   _Makkath! Are you OK?_   He could feel the dragon’s pain.   _Stay with me my friend._

They burst back into reality and V’tor clung to Makkath’s harness with his hands as he could not feel his leg. The dragon tried to fly but instead started to spiral downwards with a screech of pain as one lacerated wing tensed in agony.  V’tor felt Anastasia’s talons dig into his shoulder as she tried valiantly to hold V’tor up.

Yuuri could feel Makkath’s pain.  He knew the moment that the dragon had tried to fly again.  He felt himself screaming as his legs buckled under him and people rushed to him, frantically asking what was wrong.

“V’tor, Makkath!”  He managed to gasp.  “Injured.”   _Makkath, answer me! MAKKATH!_

 _Yuuri!_   Came the faint reply.   _We return._   The dragon’s presence in Yuuri’s mind went and Yuuri felt his breath catch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, where are they?  The thoughts tripped over themselves in Yuuri’s mind, he couldn’t count.  Suddenly the people around him gasped and looked up.  Yuuri pushed away the hands clutching at him and scrambled to his feet.  Looking up he saw three dragons.  Two dragons were supporting another dragon between them.  They laboriously settled to earth.  Yuuri ran, he could see that the injured dragon was Makkath, where was V’tor?  He heard a voice shouting for Nerene, who was already running with healing supplies and her assistants trailing her.

“V’tor!”  Yuuri shouted, his voice hoarse from his scream, and as he got nearer he could see one of the riders pulling V’tor off Makkath’s back and carrying him to the ground.  He gasped as he came up to them and saw the extent of the damage.  Makkath’s wing joint and flight muscle had been deeply scored, but not by thread.  It looked like flame from another dragon had raked up Makkath’s side, hitting his wing on the way past.  V’tor was conscious but breathing deeply in pain with his eyes closed.

“C’ris,” he breathed through gritted teeth.  “Get back there … and take charge of the wing.”  C’ris made protesting noises.

“Don’t care.”  V’tor groaned.  “Do it.  Get them back safe.”  He pushed at C’ris with one hand and C’ris turned and saw Yuuri staring at the damage to V’tor’s leg and Makkath’s wing with horror.

“Yuuri!”  C’ris’ voice was relieved and he beckoned Yuuri over.  “Come and look after them.  You’re just what he needs.”  C’ris then turned and with a contemptuous look over at the second rider, who had accompanied them back, strode over to Felath, taking off and going between back to the fight.

Yuuri didn’t have time to look at the other rider as his paralysis broke and he ran to V’tor, who was laying beside Makkath resisting attempts to have his leg looked at until he knew that Makkath’s injuries had been taken care of.  Anastasia was swaying from leg to leg on V’tor’s shoulder crooning and rubbing her face against V’tor’s.  Yuuri reaching out to touch V’tor’s other cheek, running a hand down and wiping away some of the tears that were trickling down V’tor’s smoke dirtied face.

“V’tor?” he asked.  “What happened?”

V’tor opened his eyes and gazed at Yuuri’s face.  “Yuuri, you’re here?  Please help Nerene with Makkath.  He … please, he mustn’t go into shock.”  V’tor’s voice was weak and strained with pain.

“Of course, but only if you promise to let the healers look at your leg too.”

“Very well.”  With that, V’tor’s head slumped and his body relaxed.

“V’tor!”  Yuuri shouted.  He held V’tor’s limp head in his hands,  “Wake up!  V’tor, I need you.  Please!”  He could feel tears streaking down his face as he willed the dragonrider to wake up.  Gradually he heard and felt someone trying to attract his attention.

“Yuuri!  Yuuri!  He’s OK, don’t worry, he’s just fainted.”  One of Nerene’s apprentices was speaking to him.  Yuuri wiped his eyes and looked closer.  He could faintly see V’tor’s chest rising and falling.  “Makkath needs you.”  The apprentice said, “Go, we’ll look after him”.

Makkath, yes, Yuuri looked up.   _Makkath, V’tor will be OK._   Yuuri gently lowered V’tor’s head onto the floor and with one last caress of his cheek got up to go and see to Makkath and to let the healers attend to V’tor and walked over to Makkath’s head.  The dragon was staring at his rider, his own eyes subdued from their normal bright colours and clouded with pain.

_Yuuri?_

M _akkath, are you in a lot of pain?_   Yuuri extended his hand and stroked Makkath’s enormous snout.   _V’tor will be OK, I’m sure of it._

Nerene interrupted abruptly.  “Yuuri, please talk to Makkath, as ask him to extend his wing, I can’t get the numbweed on it to stop the pain and have a closer look at the damage with it all tense like this.”  Nerene voice was tight with suppressed tears as she examined the fragile wing tissue and exposed muscle.  Yuuri gulped his panicked feelings down – he could break down later, they needed him.   _Makkath? Please answer me?_

_Makkath, we need to get the numbweed on, please, I know it hurts, but you need to move your wing._

_I try._

Makkath groaned and his wing shivered as he tried to stretch it out.  Several of the helpers grasped the wing gently and helped to extend it.  Nerene immediately started to slather numbweed onto the injury so that she could start repairing what she could.  Yuuri went to Makkath’s head as the dragon sighed in relief from the pain as the numbweed took effect.  He placed his hand on the dragon’s nose and asked, _Makkath, can you tell me what happened?  If you can?_

_I do not know.  We fight and I flame.  Felath came too close.  We rose higher to fight better, but then I hurt and go between, when we come back I cannot fly.  Felath and Doreth support us and we come home.  Doreth is very sad._

_Why is Doreth sad?_

_He thinks that it is his fault.  He flamed us._

_It must have been an accident Makkath._

_Yes, it was._

_Does it hurt anymore._

_No.  Go and be with V’tor, he is awake and he worries._ Yuuri gave Makkath’s nose a last stroke and walked back to V’tor who had regained consciousness and was looking considerably more alert, now he had allowed the healers to cut away the burnt leathers and put numbweed on his leg.

“Yuuri!”  V’tor attempted a strained smile.

“V’tor!”  Yuuri dropped beside the injured man and put his hand gently on V’tor’s face.  “You worried me! I thought …”

“Yuuri, I love you.”  V’tor smiled a strained smile when Yuuri’s jaw dropped.

“I love you, too V’tor” and he smiled back.  “Wait there.  I need to see if there’s anything I can do.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Yuuri!”  V’tor said with an amused look on his face.

Yuuri turned to the healers, “how can I help?”

Nerene heard and said from behind “Yuuri, you’re doing great, keep them both calm and steady, we’ll be done soon.

For the next half an hour Yuuri shared his attention between dragon and rider, until Nerene announced that that was all she could do for Makkath and came to check on the work the healers had done repairing the damage to V’tor’s leg.

“Well, if it’s not one it’s the other.  This injury is rather more severe than Yuuri running the skin off his feet.  You are to do what you are told this time V’tor.  Yuuri was the perfect patient, I expect the same level of respect for my words from you.”

V’tor smiled up at his foster mother, “Thank you Nerene, you save us all.”

“Gah!  Enough with the smooth words just do as you’re told for once!”

V’tor’s smile faded as the sky grew darker.  The wings returning to the weyr at the end of the fall.  He sighed.

“What’s wrong?”  Yuuri asked.

“Y’kov and Lilia”  V’tor said and closed his eyes in what appeared to be frustration.

Oh, Yuuri thought.  He had already heard Y’kov’s temper once and could believe that V’tor was not looking forward to being on the receiving end again, although it hardly seemed to be V’tor’s fault that he was injured.

The weyr was filled with the sounds of dragon’s wings.  The weyrfolk (those who were not occupied with aiding the injured) ran to help unload the empty firestone sacks from the dragons and bringing the riders food and drink.  The loud voices completely overwhelming the previous hush.  Gradually dragons gathered at the lake to clean off with their riders and the weyrlings and the noise level abated.  As the last dragons lifted away from the bowl of the weyr to go and sleep on the ledges outside their individual weyrs Yuuri noticed the two familiar figures of Y’kov and Lilia approaching the healer’s area.  As they came closer he could see the anger on their faces.  They glanced between Doreth and Makkath.  Georgi was still kneeling on the ground slumped over and holding Doreth’s snout for comfort.  Yuuri rose to his feet as the weyrleaders approached V’tor.

“Weyrleader Y’kov, Weyrwoman Lila.”  He said, bowing respectfully.  Maybe he could take the edge off their anger a little.

“Yuuri.”  Y’kov said tersely.  Nerene moved to stand behind Yuuri and put a hand on his shoulder.  He knew she meant it to be reassuring.

“Y’kov, I think everyone here would appreciate it if you saved any lectures for later.  The details and recriminations can wait until both V’tor and Georgi have recovered from the shock.”  Nerene stated firmly.  Georgi finally raised his head at the mention of his name, his face was tear streaked as well and he looked completely anguished.  He ducked his head back down in shame.

“This is …” Y’kov started to spit, but Nerene interrupted smoothly and firmly.

“This has been a terrible accident, but nobody died.  Yes, lessons need to be learned, but not this minute, not here.”  Nerene gently pushed Yuuri to one side and stepped forward.  “Now that the injuries have been treated, we can recover and then work out a strategy to prevent this from happening again.”  She crossed her arms and stared balefully at Y’kov.  Lilia looked away from V’tor to Nerene and nodded firmly.

“Nerene is right Y’kov.  We will discuss this later.”  Lilia nodded at V’tor and Yuuri.  She glanced at Georgi and shook her head.  Placing a hand on Y’kov’s opposite shoulder she turned the still seething weyrleader around and pushed him firmly towards the caverns.

Nerene looked down at Yuuri who had started to shake in reaction to the tension.  She turned and signalled to one of her healers who came forward with a mug.  She gave it to Yuuri.

“You can probably get him to drink this better than I can.  It’s a sleeping draught.  Sleep is the best cure at the moment.”  Yuuri sunk down and carefully lifted V’tor’s head into his lap.  Vicchan had been on Yuuri’s shoulder clinging tight with his tail firmly around Yuuri’s neck all this time, the presence of the little dragon extremely comforting.

“My dear.  Everything will be fine.  Now, we need to get organised and as Makkath will not be able to fly for weeks and V’tor’s injuries need regular care they will both have to move into the healing caves.”  Nerene moved away to begin organising her helpers.

Yuuri finally paid attention to the other dragon rider who had landed supporting Makkath.  At some point he had registered that it was Georgi, the rider who had been devastated by his rejection the other day, but he could only now think clearly about what Makkath had said regarding the accident.  He looked down at V’tor, whose head rested in Yuuri’s lap and stroked his long fringe away from his face.  He had known the man just a couple of weeks.  How could he feel like a part of himself would be ripped out if the dragonrider had died?  When had this feeling started?  A tear slowly trickled down his face as he allowed himself to think about what might have been and how lucky they were.

“Hi.”  A soft, but awkward voice interrupted his thoughts.  Yuuri looked up at Georgi who had walked over and had sunk down on his knees beside Yuuri and V’tor.  “I’m so sorry.  I nearly killed them both.”  Yuuri could see that his face was also streaked with soot and tears.

“That’s enough of that.”  Nerene’s voice firmly stated as she walked towards them.  “No self-recriminations at the moment, please.  Now, I’ve organised help to clear out a weyr on the ground level and to get these two settled in.  Luckily no one will have to carry Makkath, he can still walk even though it will be painful, and here are the stretcher-bearers now.  After V’tor and Makkath are settled, you are to report to Y’kov Georgi.  Georgi visibly gulped and wiped a hand across his eyes.

“I will take whatever punishment the weyrleader decides.  I deserve no less than to be banished from the weyr.”  He said in a hollow voice.

V’tor had roused himself at Georgi’s speech and faintly said, “Not your fault, my fault, I shouldn’t have let you fly, I knew you still weren’t ready.  My responsibility.”

“You can tell that to Y’kov yourself when you’ve slept off the sleeping draught I gave you.  I have informed him that any disciplinary action should only be taken after consulting with you.  Now relax.”  Nerene shooed at Georgi, “now go and see Y’kov, no decisions are going to be taken yet Georgi.”

She turned to Yuuri and waved vaguely towards some cavern mouths near to the kitchen cavern.  “Yuuri, I need you to help move V’tor’s belongings – only the things that are necessary.”  She corrected as V’tor opened his mouth.  “Please go and find Yuri, he can help as he knows where everything is.”  With a firm hand on Yuuri’s back she gently pushed him in the direction of the kitchens.

~

Yuuri huffed and massaged his shoulder.  That was the last of it.  He had told Yuri that he could go a while ago.  The boy was obviously badly affected by the drama in the weyr that day and his brother’s severe injury, and his temper had been fouler than usual.  Yuuri was exhausted both mentally and physically.

Yuuri looked towards Makkath.  The huge dragon had curled up in the hollow specially made for a dragon in the weyr.  Yuuri had sent Vicchan to be with Makkath as soon as the dragon had crawled into his sleeping place.  The little fire-lizard was curled up sleeping right beside Makkath enormous snout.  The sight was adorable.  Yuuri smiled tiredly to himself, he slowly walked over to the bed where V’tor was lying asleep.  The dragonrider had tried his hardest to resist the sleeping draught, but had eventually succumbed as Yuuri and Yuri were shifting the few boxes that Nerene had deemed appropriate and the healing supplies necessary.  Stubborn fool, Yuuri thought.  He settled down on the bed beside V’tor, propped up on one elbow, and gazed down at the silver haired man he had grown to love.  Anastasia was curled up right beside V’tor’s head on the other side, refusing to leave the man’s side.  Yuuri gently lifted the cover over V’tor, worried that the rider would feel the cold chill of the night air and lay down beside the rider.  I’ll just close my eyes, he thought.

~

V’tor woke to anxious creeling noises and hushed conversation.  He could make out Yuuri’s voice and Nerene’s reassuring gentle tones.  Oh, the fire lizards were being fed.  He thought back to the previous day.  They must have redressed his injury while he was asleep as his leg and hip did not hurt.  Thankful for the blessing of numbweed, he raised himself up on his elbow.  Unfortunately he had chosen the shoulder with the threadscore, which had not been treated with numbweed and hissed loudly as his shoulder muscle protested the movement.  Immediately Yuuri and Nerene turned.  Nerene nodded, Yuuri persuaded Vicchan onto Nerene’s other arm and came over to the bed.

“You’re not allowed to move.  We deliberately left off the numbweed on the thread score because Nerene said that if you weren’t in any pain you’d start running around the weyr trying to act as if nothing was wrong."

"My Yuuri is cruel."  V'tor complained faintly.  Yuuri lifted V'tor's shoulders and piled pillows up behind him, gently pushing him onto them.  Sitting down on the edge of the bed he pulled his hands into fists on his thighs.  Looking up at V’tor, eyes glistening with unshed tears he said, “I thought, I thought I could lose you.  When I saw your injuries and you lying on the ground, it made me realise that I could never want to leave you.  I want to follow you anywhere.”

V’tor raised his good arm and wiped the tear that had overflowed down Yuuri’s cheek.  “I’m tougher than you give me credit for Yuuri.”

Yuuri turned away from V’tor.  “But I’m a distraction!  If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have been away for two days, and you wouldn’t have been tired and Makkath wouldn’t have tried to talk to me while you were fighting thread!”  Yuuri’s voice had been gradually getting more distraught throughout this speech to V’tor’s concern.  He looked across at Nerene, who was looking at Yuuri with sympathy.

“I think we should end this.  It’s obvious that I’m not suited to this life.  I’m distracting you from your duties and I should leave.” Yuuri paused, not sure what to say next when he was surprised to see small splashes of water on the covers of the bed.

“I didn’t expect that Yuuri could be so selfish.”  V’tor said.  Yuuri drew in a quick, hurt breath and looked down at his hands still fisted on his thighs.

“Right, I made this selfish decision on my own.”  Yuuri stated dully.  He looked up, slowly reached out and brushed V’tor’s fringe aside.

“What are you doing Yuuri?”  V’tor angrily pushed Yuuri’s hand away, hissing again as his shoulder injury twinged.

“I’m just surprised to see you cry.”  Yuuri said wonderingly.

“I’m mad, OK?”  He said angrily.  Yuuri drew in a quick, hurt breath and looked down at his hands still fisted on his thighs.

“How do you expect me to carry on without you Yuuri!  I love you!  At this time you mean more to me than anything else.  The world can become covered in thread without you beside me.”

Nerene walked over with the two fire lizards still on her arms.  “Here, you two, take your little ones back and stop getting yourselves worked up, it’s not doing either of you any good.”  Both V’tor and Yuuri looked down in shame.  “V’tor you’re injured, accidents happen to the best of us, don’t think you’re immune.  Yuuri you made a promise to the weyrleaders to dance for the weyr and to think about whether you will take part in the hatching.”  Yuuri looked up at Nerene, stricken.  She passed over the two fire lizards, both sleepy with distended bellies from their meals.  “I’ll leave you two to talk things over, calmly.”  She smiled, kissed V’tor on the head, patted Yuuri’s shoulder and walked out.

“I’m sorry.”  Yuuri apologised.  “I guess … I’ve never felt so helpless before.  I’ve never felt anything like this for anyone else.”

“And you think I have?”  V’tor laughed ruefully.  “Yuuri, I’m as lost as you.  I would show you how much you mean to me, but unfortunately …” He gestured at his injured leg.  Yuuri immediately leaned over carefully and kissed V’tor full on the lips.  V’tor responded enthusiastically, burying his hand in Yuuri’s hair.  They broke apart; V’tor let his head fall back onto the pillows behind and smiled at Yuuri.  Yuuri buried his head in V’tor’s uninjured shoulder and his arms stole around V”tor’s waist.

They ended up sharing the bed, kissing and talking through the day.  They agreed that Yuuri would leave any decision making until after the hatching and fell asleep in each others arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn’t resist including the first scene from episode 12, I had to change it slightly to fit – obviously. Our poor Yuuri is rather irrational, saying that he could never leave Victor and then immediately saying he’ll leave, but he had a traumatic day the day before and hasn’t fully recovered.
> 
> In the books one of the most understated characters is Lytol an ex-dragonrider who lost his dragon to another dragon’s flaming breath in a game gone wrong, he lives a half-life afterwards but gradually recovers throughout the books. He’s a great character.
> 
> Don’t ask about the physics of dragons, it’s all quantum, just enjoy!
> 
> I would really appreciate you letting me know what you think. I'm really, really nervous about this chapter and the first part was the main reason for the 5 month hiatus before the last chapter. I love all of you who've read this, and especially those wonderful people who have commented on all or nearly all the chapters, you've really kept me going. A shout out to the amazing [imaginary_dragonling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_dragonling/pseuds/imaginary_dragonling) who has given me so much encouragement and is an amazing writer too.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and I love to receive comments, or come and talk to me on my tumblr [@narcissuspseudonarcissus](https://narcissuspseudonarcissus.tumblr.com)


	7. A new beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is, the final chapter. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has left kudos and especially those who commented they absolutely make my day and I squeal with excitement at every notification. I never realised how fantastic it would be to talk to you all and I wish I’d done this years ago. Thank you for sticking with me through to the end and I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. I’ve learned so much and I hope my writing has improved since the first two chapters (which I'm very embarrassed about)!
> 
> This chapter contains some nasty, vicious bullying which is not handled that well by the characters. Just to let you know. Oh and bullies don’t deserve names.

_Dragonman, Dragonman,_  
_Between thee and thine,_  
_Share me that glimpse of love_  
_Greater than mine._  
Anne McCaffrey

The weyrfolk were buzzing with the gossip about the accident during threadfall.  Even Phichit had sent Yuuri a message with one of his fire lizards asking what had happened.  Yuuri wrote back, but didn’t say what exactly went wrong just that it was a bad accident and V’tor was healing nicely and would Phichit please come and see Yuuri dance and what should Yuuri do about the hatching?

Phichit wrote back straight away:

_My Goodness Yuuri, your life suddenly got exciting.  I can’t wait to come and see you dance - of course we’re coming, Celestino got an invitation from Y’kov and I can’t wait._

_What do you mean, what should you do about the hatching?  Most people would give their right arm to be a dragonrider, what are you going on about.  If I know anything about you then you’ll end up impressing the Queen and leave all those girls sobbing on the hatching grounds.  Oh we’ve been asked along to that too.  M’lin will bring us as soon as he hears from the dragons.  Looking forward to seeing you._

_Phichit_

Yuuri smiled, Phichit was as bouncy as usual.  He couldn’t wait to see his friend again, it felt like so long since that day Phichit had visited the weyr after Yuuri had injured his feet.

Yuuri wandered into V’tor’s temporary quarters still clutching the letter in his hand. Vicchan immediately flew from his shoulder to twine necks with Anastasia who was in V’tor’s lap.

“I know that smile, something good has happened.”  V’tor said from the bed.  His injury was still too severe to allow him to walk, so he was confined to his bed.  V’tor was not a good patient, unused to resting, too used to being in demand and organising.  Yuuri’s main job at the moment was to keep V’tor’s brain occupied so he didn’t try to get up and damage Nerene’s hard work.

“Phichit sent me a note,” Yuuri sat down on the edge of the bed.  “He’s coming for the evening of my dance and both him and his father are going to be at the hatching.”

“That’s good, I should be on my feet by then.”  Yuuri looked at V’tor sceptically.

“If you don’t stop trying to get up and out of these quarters, then Nerene is going to tie you to the bed.”

“Yuuri!  So cruel!”  V’tor looked at Yuuri from underneath his fringe.  “I might stay here if you tie me to the bed though?”  Yuuri gasped and coloured at V’tor’s comment and crossed his arms.

“Not happening V’tor!  I’m following Nerene’s instructions, because I know that’s the way for you to get better quicker.  Can’t you just behave?”

“But I’m bored.”  Yuuri dragged his hand down his face; dealing with the worst patient he had ever come across was a nightmare, even if he loved him.

~

V’tor had demanded to be part of the conference where they discussed the accident, so it took place in his temporary weyr.  Georgi had taken it hard and was also being shunned by a considerable portion of the weyrfolk, which made his emotional state even more vulnerable.  V’tor and Yuuri were very worried and despite V’tor’s efforts to make C’ris see that it was a simple accident and to bring Georgi back into the fighting wing C’ris had so far refused to countenance the idea.  The dragons had generally agreed that it was an unfortunate accident and that as long as no lasting damage had been done, then they weren’t sure why the humans were still making so much fuss.

Y’kov and Lilia were the last to arrive, they all settled down onto benches circled around one side of the cot that V’tor was using in the main part of the weyr in order to be in sight of Makkath.  Yuuri and Yuri had brought them from the dining hall into the weyr with much grumbling on Yuri’s part and then the final insult was being excluded from the conference.

“Hey, I’m not invited either.”  Yuuri pointed out.  “I need to practise my dancing, want to watch?”

“As if.”  Yuri’s whole attitude spoke of revulsion at the idea.  “I’m going to be a dragonrider, I don’t need poxy dancing.”

Yuuri shrugged and grinning at Yuri’s horrible attitude walked away down to the room he was using for practice.

Yuri kicked at the floor a few times, slightly regretting his attitude.  Yuuri was a nice guy and didn’t really deserve it, but he was so annoyingly meek and just, arrrghhh.  Yuri turned and kicked the wall of the corridor.

He couldn’t believe the fuss over his brother and his injuries.  So what he was the second in charge of the weyr?  He was a moron, letting his dragon get injured like that.  When Yuri impressed a bronze dragon, he would never let anything happen to either of them.

~

Yuuri came out of the practice room after an hour, he sent Vicchan to V’tor’s quarters with a note asking if the conference had finished and whether he could go and wash up. Until there was a reply he decided to wander down to the dining hall to get some food to take to V’tor for lunch.  Lost in his thoughts it took some time for the sound of an argument to break through, but when it did he realised that one of the participants was Yuri.  He decided to listen for a bit and leaned against the wall out of sight round the bend in the corridor, because although Yuri was extremely rude and prickly Yuuri found that he liked him.  There was a spark Yuri had and it would get him a long way if he could learn to control his temper.  The other voice did not sound friendly.  

“What do you mean by that?”  Yuuri heard the boy answer defiantly.

“What I mean is that you’re too weak and weedy to be a dragonrider, bet you couldn’t even impress a blue even though you’re the weyrleader’s son.  How many hatchings has it been now?”  Yuri’s tormentor laughed, “I wonder what the record is for the most number of failed attempts at being a dragonrider.”  There was a pause while the bully waited for an answer.  “What? Nothing to say?”

They bantered nastily back and forth for a while Yuri giving as good as he got, until there was the sound of a scuffle.  Yuuri hastily moved away from the wall and rounded the corner.

A boy was holding Yuri in a headlock; the other three were standing round looking on with big grins on their faces.  “I would suggest you stop fighting!”  He said in a loud firm voice, crossing his arms and using his height to intimidate as much as possible.

“Yeah?  And who do you think you are?”

Yuuri looked down his nose at the obnoxious boy in front of him and raised one eyebrow.  “Let Yuri go, and we can forget about this.  I wouldn’t want to have to report you to the Weyrleader for fighting.  That might see you thrown out of the weyr at worst and at the very least prevented from attending the hatching.”  Yuuri radiated confidence and he saw the bullies hesitate. But then the one who looked the oldest pushed Yuri violently at one of the others, who pinned Yuri's hands behind his back.  He stalked forward, Yuuri could see that the boy’s rage was in control and waited for him to throw the first punch.  

“Leave Yuuri alone you bastards.”  Yuri shouted from behind and struggled in the larger boy’s grip.  He grunted as one of them punched him in the stomach.  The boy in front of Yuuri shifted his weight, his chest telegraphed which way he was going to punch and as soon as he saw the action begin Yuuri dropped into a rasteiras and swept the boy’s legs out from under him.  The boy landed with a thump and Yuuri bounced back to his feet and crossed his arms again.  He could see the tableau of boys holding Yuri standing with their mouths agape.

“Anyone else like to try?”  Yuuri asked.  There was silence. “Then I suggest you let Yuri go and we’ll be on our way.  You’d better take your friend to the healer, they might have hit their head.”  The boys released Yuri who stumbled forwards.  Yuuri took his arm and walked them both off.

“I’m going to have to report this Yuri.  How long have they been after you?”

When Yuri didn’t reply Yuuri looked down, “you can’t just let this go.  They would have beaten you.”  Yuri still didn’t reply, just kept walking forward.  “Very well, if you won’t tell me their names, then I’ll have to investigate myself and report them.”  Silence.  They came to the dining hall and Yuuri was about to separate from Yuri when Yuri grabbed his arm.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“That thing where you took him out.  Can you teach me?”

“Only if you tell me their names, so I can report them.”

“OK.”  Yuri sullenly told Yuuri the boy’s names, and then brightened.  “So?  What was that and how long will it take me to learn to do it?

“It was Capoeira, a form of dance that acts as a fighting style.  It was in the records on AIVAS, along with a tutorial on how to do it.  Minako, the harper in charge of education at Landing, said I should do it to improve my dancing and it would also give me confidence.  So I learnt.  That was the first time I’ve ever had to use it to defend myself though.  It’s going to take dedication and months of work though, are you up for that?”

“Yes, duh, I’ll do anything to be that cool!”  Yuri slapped a hand over his mouth as if he hadn’t meant to say that and Yuuri laughed.

“I’ll let you know a practice time.  I’ve got to get some food for V’tor and I hope that conference has finished.”

“It has, there’s C’ris.”

“Go and sit with him or Nerene, I’ll be back later.”

~

Yuuri entered the weyr quarters he shared with V’tor to see that the dragonrider looked as if he was asleep.  Placing the food for the fire lizards and his own food on the table he walked quietly over to Makkath and inspected the dragon’s wing, not wanting to disturb the dragon either.  He wondered what had happened at the conference to exhaust the two of them so much.  Sitting at the table he started to eat his lunch, feeding Vicchan at the same time.  V’tor woke up with the smell of food and Anastasia’s scolding of Vicchan when she thought he’d taken too much food and shifted slightly to look for Yuuri.  Pain lanced up his hip as he accidently moved his leg and he let out a gasp.  He heard a light clatter of cutlery and felt Yuuri’s fingers brushing against his forehead.

“Hey, there, are you OK?”  Yuuri asked gently.

“Yes, I’m fine, just stiff.” V’tor couldn’t keep the slight irritation out of his voice and he reached a hand out to Yuuri in apology.  Yuuri grasped it and smiled at him.

“Do you need some numbweed.”

V’tor put on a mournful voice and Yuuri could tell he was trying not to smirk. “Will you massage it into my leg Yuuri?”  Yuuri choked and moved off to fetch the numbweed.

V’tor let out a sigh as the numbweed stopped all the twinges and itching from the healing wound.

“So, tell me what went on with the conference, while I’m running my hands over your leg.”  Yuuri grinned.

“Yuuri!  If I could move you would be in so much trouble by now.”  V’tor became serious again, “you know what happened?”

“Yes, Makkath told me it was an accident.  That Doreth never meant to do it.”

“Yes, well the dragons were very emphatic on the point that the damage was accidental and that there was no ill intent.  Which I knew all along, but some people took a bit of persuading.”  V’tor paused and sighed.

“Y’kov and Lilia?”  Yuuri guessed.

“Yes, they are a fantastic team, even if they don’t see eye to eye a lot of the time, but they are very strict in the weyr and the behaviour expected of the riders. The decision had to be made as to whether Georgi was fit to continue.”  V’tor laughed and groaned at the same time, “Georgi himself declared that he was unfit to be a wingsecond and wanted to leave the weyr and, I don’t know, go and live in the wilderness somewhere with Doreth.” V’tor waved his arm vaguely.  “Y’kov was agreeing with him when C’ris and I stepped in.  We suggested that Georgi take a break somewhere away from Anya and that he should go and study at Landing for a few months and then he could come back and take up his duties again.”  V’tor looked thoughtful.  “He was really surprised but jumped at the idea.  Y’kov and Lilia begrudgingly agreed and so,” V’tor beamed, “problem solved.  Georgi is moving to landing tomorrow, Y’kov sent a note and he’ll be training under Minako.”  

Yuuri looked up at V’tor in surprise.  “Minako!  I thought he wasn’t being punished?”  They both collapsed in laughter as the tension broke and they visualised Georgi being cowed by Minako’s no nonsense approach.  As their laughter stopped they looked into each other’s eyes.

“Yuuri?”  V’tor asked.  Yuuri leaned forward and pressed their lips together.  V’tor’s hand came up to cup Yuuri’s head and they deepened the kiss.  Yuuri’s heart started to pound and he leaned in further. Eventually he came to his senses and broke apart, worrying about V’tor’s injury and rested his head on V’tor’s shoulder.

“We can’t, you’re still injured.”  Yuuri said quietly.

“I’ll take what I can get.”

“There’s also something important that you should know.  Yuri has a problem.”

“Yuri has many problems.”  V’tor retorted, “to which one were you referring?”

“He’s being bullied by some of the other candidates for the hatching.”

“Oh?”  V’tor brushed his fringe away and raised an eyebrow.

“After some bribery he eventually told me their names.”

“To what extent is he being bullied?”

“I caught them taunting him and then physically restraining him, one of them punched him in the stomach as they attempted to threaten me.”  Yuuri had a slightly amused expression on his face to V’tor’s surprise.  Yuuri noticed the look of surprise and grinned openly.

“I don’t just dance you know, there’s a lot of information on AIVAS that I researched and one of those was an ancient fighting style that incorporated a lot of dance elements and was even used in dance displays.  It’s quite effective.”  V’tor’s eyes were glowing and he grabbed Yuuri’s hand.

“You will show me at some point, won’t you?”  He gushed.  Yuuri nodded, smiling.  “Yuuri, I can’t believe you ever thought you were mediocre.  Nothing about you is mediocre.  Your dancing is astonishing.  You fight without weapons, you study, work hard, and you’re good and kind.”

“Stop! Stop!” Yuuri waved his hands and then covered his face.  V’tor pulled Yuuri’s hands away and kissed them.  “Who should I tell about the boys that attacked Yuri?”

“Well, me obviously, and really Lilia is the one who should know, she is responsible for the wellbeing of all the weyrfolk.”

“I’ll go and talk to her now.  While you eat.”

~

Yuri thought that Yuuri hadn’t mentioned the interrupted fight to anyone yet, so he was probably safe from revenge for a day or so.  After the lunch Nerene had set him to do some stupid little task and then nagged him into accessing the terminals that had been set up in the weyr for people to learn on.

“Go and learn something Yuri.”  He huffed, but then remembered the cool move that Yuuri had used to take out his worst tormentor.  What was it called again ‘Capoeira’ or something like that?  He could do some research on that. Keen to be able to impress the dancer he left the hall quickly on his way to the training rooms that held the terminals.

Several hours later Yuri sat back.  It all looked fascinating.  He was starting to really look forward to his time with Yuuri the next day.  There were a few moves that he was certain he could practice on his own.  He wasn’t going to let anyone take advantage of his size any more.  Humming one of the harper’s tunes he went to find Yuuri to arrange a time when they could practice, but coming out of the training area he found ‘them’ blocking the corridor. Shit!  There was nowhere to retreat to and no Yuuri this time.  Well, he wasn’t going to go down without a fight so he squared his shoulders and lifted his chin.

“So the little weakling, thinks he can be a dragonrider more than us?”  The weyr’s oldest recruit looked down his nose at Yuri and crossed his arms.  “Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen.  We’ve been prevented from going to the hatching so I don’t see why you should go either.”

Yuri straightened his spine as much as possible and cursed at his stupid body the whole time for not growing faster.  Why did he have to be the short one in the family?

The bully bent over, Yuri clenched his fists so hard he could feel his nails digging into the skin.  He pictured himself punching the bastard in the face, and kicking him.  But, he knew that if he got into a fight before the hatching there would be no hatching for him and he knew that was what the bullies were hoping for.  The rules on fighting were strict and no weyrling dared disobey.  

Yuri crossed his arms and glared defiantly up at the bully.  “You wouldn’t dare! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business elsewhere.”

“Oh ho!  Business elsewhere is it?”  The Bully looked around at his cronies for validation - they all laughed dutifully.  “Well, I think your business is actually here with us.”

Yuri knew he was better than this; they would never dare to attack him again, not with Yuuri knowing who they were and knowing they had been reported.  “Well, given your attitude I very much doubt that any dragon will have anything to do with you, ever.”  Walking forward Yuuri tried to push past the cronies, but he felt a hand grab his arm.

“Not so fast you little shit.”  Yuri cried out as his arm was bent back unnaturally.  The look on the bully’s face was one of satisfaction and glee.  Yuri kicked and struggled as much as he could but as he felt the punches connect the pain took over his brain and eventually, thankfully he lost consciousness.

~

Eventually someone stumbled across Yuri in the corridor.  Nerene was summoned and diagnosed a broken leg along with multiple contusions and a probable concussion.  She looked at him solemnly.

“Yuri, you realise that this injury may prevent you from taking part in the hatching next week?”

“What! No!  I have to be there.  I have to!”  He grabbed at Nerene’s sleeve and pulled despite the pain it caused him.

“Yuri!” She said sadly. “I am trying to help you.”

Yuri couldn’t believe it.  A week before the most important hatching of his life and his sharding leg was broken.  He brushed furiously with his sleeve at the tears that were forming in his eyes, determined not to show any weakness.  This was not an option.  There was no way on this planet that he was going to miss this hatching.

“Tell me,” he said shakily. “What I have to do to get better quicker? Please.”

Nerene levelled a baleful look at Yuri, “If you do exactly as I say, then there is a chance that we can get you mobile enough to attend the hatching. But, if you don’t then this injury may never heal properly and you will never be fit enough to be a dragonrider.  Do you understand?”

Yuri grimaced, gave a sharp nod and then looked away.

“What will happen to them?”

“The boys who beat you?” Yuri nodded. “I have never seen Yuuri so fiery, you would have thought that he was going to start flaming them himself.” She smiled at the memory and then became serious. “They have been exiled from the weyr and sent back to their families in disgrace.  They will not come near you again.” 

Nerene reached out and gripped his hand reassuringly.  “With the new information we have from AIVAS, the healing times for these sorts of injuries are no longer weeks Yuri.  We will do our best.”

“I know.  I just …” Yuri’s voice petered out.

“Yuri!” Yuuri had pulled the curtain aside and was looking at them, his face betraying his concern.

Yuri swallowed and looked away. If he wasn’t going to show weakness in front of Nerene, he certainly wasn’t going to show any in front of Yuuri who he was increasingly coming to admire.

“I’m so sorry Yuri, I never … we never thought they’d take revenge so swiftly. We also thought they would be frightened into leaving you alone, we were so wrong. What do you need from us? I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.” Yuuri said softly. Yuri’s throat tightened and he clenched his fists and closed his eyes.

“Just go away, pig, and leave me alone. You’ve done enough damage.” Yuri could hear himself say the words and couldn’t believe what was coming out of his own mouth.

“If that’s what you need, then that’s OK, just let me know when you want to talk again Yuri.” Yuri heard the curtain fall back into place.

“Yuri?” Nerene asked. “Did you really mean that?”

“No.” The word was ripped out of Yuri’s throat and he could feel the tears rolling down his cheeks. Nerene folded him in her arms as he let all the anguish come out.

~

Sometimes over the next week, Yuuri felt he needed to get away from the weyrfolk and their constant curiosity about how V’tor was and whether Yuuri was going to be a candidate at the hatching.   There were, also, two invalids now in Yuuri’s orbit, each as grumpy as the other. Yuuri quite frequently resorted to practicing his dancing to escape all of them.

Yuri had apologised for his outburst the next day and begged Yuuri to still teach him Capoeira once he was fit again, but his general mood did not noticeably improve.

A week of enforced inactivity did not go down well with V’tor and he had even started to get bad tempered with Yuuri. Yuuri, surprisingly, had been getting just as snappy back as the date of his performance drew near. The solution of having Yuuri dance for V’tor in his weyr occurred to both of them before they said something irreversible.  The trouble was that Yuuri dancing in front of V’tor just made V’tor find his temporary disability even more frustrating and Yuuri refused to do anything against Nerene’s orders.  V’tor had been going slightly insane.

One of the things Yuuri hadn’t discussed with V’tor was that he had started to practice a new dance in secret; Dalina had looked over the music and said that it would be an interesting challenge to play and she thought that she could have it ready for the day of Yuuri’s dance. He felt that just repeating his performance from the gather would not be enough to thank the people who had taken him into their hearts. The music was fast and passionate and expressed better than words his feelings for the silver-haired dragon rider.

~

On the day the dance was scheduled V’tor had finally been allowed to move from his bed and walk with a stick.  His injury was healing better than expected and he would be able to watch Yuuri’s dance for the weyrleaders.  

Yuuri was distracted and constantly fidgeting, nothing V’tor said seemed to make any difference and Makkath refused to tell him what was bothering Yuuri so much, only saying that Yuuri was concerned about the evening and that V’tor should not worry.  It was with great relief on both sides that Yuuri left to greet Phichit when he arrived. Phichit immediately hauled Yuuri off for a tour of the weyr and hatching grounds.  It didn’t take long for Phichit to extract the reason for Yuuri’s extra nerves.

“You are completely ridiculous you know,” Phichit told Yuuri with a smile. “You have one perfect dance and you’ve just created another and you’re worrying that the man you created it for won’t like it? Can’t you see how besotted he is with you? Take me to the harper and show me.”

They found the weyr Harper Dalina, who would be playing Yuuri’s music, in her quarters and she easily agreed to do a quick run through of the second piece, commenting wryly that she could certainly do with the practice. The fire lizards were told to sit, although they could sing if they wanted to and they began. Phichit’s eyes were shining and he had his hands over his mouth when they finished.

“Yuuri! Oh my! V’tor is going to have a heart attack.” Yuuri looked at him in surprise.

“Is that good?”

“Good? It was amazing. You’re going to break a few hearts tonight.”

“Phichit! Please stop!”

“I know, I know, there’s only one heart you want.” Phichit teased mercilessly. Yuuri buried his face in his hands and groaned.

Despite the teasing, Yuuri was grateful to Phichit for distracting him from his nervousness.  He knew V’tor had tried to do his best, but unfortunately that was worse than useless.  Yuuri smiled to himself, the worst patient in the world trying to calm down the worst nervous wreck in the world, what a pair.

When they arrived back at the quarters V’tor and Yuuri were sharing, V’tor greeted Phichit and indicated a pitcher of wine resting on the table, pulling Yuuri in for a kiss.

“It’s going to take me longer than you to get to the hall, so I’ll leave you with Phichit, as well as Anastasia to get changed.” There was a wicked glint in V’tor’s eyes, “as much as I’d love to help you get changed, I think it would end up taking longer.” As Yuuri blushed, V’tor winked, prompted Anastasia to climb off his shoulder and limped off with his cane. Yuuri looked at Phichit’s smirking face as he held out a cup of wine.

“I’m not trying to get you drunk, just have one to take the edge off your nerves.” Yuuri eyed Phichit sceptically and took the cup.

~

V’tor felt useless as he watched the hall fill. He couldn’t cheer Yuuri up earlier; Yuri had just bitten his head off because the boy was frustrated and furious about the hatching. V’tor understood, but it didn’t make it any easier to take when he was feeling very similar emotions himself.

_Makkath, how is Yuuri doing?_

_He will be alright. The Lord holder’s son is with him still and he has Vicchan and the other three._

_Can you … can you tell him I love him._

_He knows this._

_Yes, but he may need to hear it again._

V’tor waited, drumming his fingers on the table, while Makkath passed his message on to Yuuri.

“Will you sharding stop that, you big idiot." Yuri reached over and slapped his hand down on top of V’tor’s to stop the tapping.

_Yuuri wants me to say that he loves you back and please stop worrying._

_Thank you Makkath._

_I would also like to see this dance, but I would not fit in the hall._

V’tor grinned.  _He’ll have to do a special performance at some point just for you Makkath!_

Yuri glared at V’tor and punched him on the shoulder. “Shut up!”

V’tor spread his arms, “what? I didn’t say anything!”

Yuri was about to retort angrily when Phichit came up to them with the five fire lizards hanging off his arms. Anastasia immediately took off and flew to V’tor, Vicchan following. The two fire lizards perched on V’tor’s shoulders and rubbed their heads along his cheeks. He couldn’t help smiling at them, leaning forwards when he noticed Yuuri coming up to the harper to talk to her.

Dalina was casually strumming her guitar but stopped when she saw Yuuri approach. He was wearing the dragon costume from the gather and looked stunning. She hadn’t seen him in costume before and blinked in surprise, then smiled at him.

“Are you ready Yuuri?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, although I’ve never seen the hall so crowded. Are you sure you’re OK to do the second one if they want it?”

“I look forward to it, and of course they’ll want it, everyone has crowded in here tonight just to see you dance. The floor’s yours.” She strummed a loud discordant note on her guitar to get everyone’s attention and looked pointedly at Yuuri.

The hall gradually fell silent. Yuuri walked forward to the centre of the specially cleared space and stood with his eyes down and palms crossed over his chest. Dalina began to play and Yuuri lost himself in the music. He could feel the difference in his performance, so much had happened in the last three weeks, he had been an immediate part of the life of a weyr, involved in a way few outsiders could be and he added those emotions to his performance. The part of the injured dragon and rider was now full of raw emotion; he had lived it after all. As he came to the final position and stopped there was silence in the hall. His eyes immediately sought out those of V’tor and he realised that the dragon rider was standing, as was everyone else. Phichit broke the silence with a shouted “YUURI!” and everyone started clapping and some shouted for more. Yuuri only had eyes for V’tor and walked as steadily as he could over to where the rider was still standing one hand over his mouth and as Yuuri came closer he could see that tears were tracking their way down V’tor’s face. He reached out and was immediately enveloped in a tight hug.

“Yuuri. You … How … I don’t know what to say.”

“Let me go V’tor, I haven’t finished yet.” V’tor slowly let go of Yuuri and Yuuri planted a kiss on his cheek, he didn’t dare kiss V’tor fully, he didn’t think he’d be able to stop.

“What do you mean you haven’t finished yet?” Yuuri just pushed V’tor gently back onto his seat and winked.

“Don’t take your eyes off of me.” He commanded and turned back to the centre of the room. He turned to face Y’kov and Lilia who were looking at him with new respect.

“With your permission I have another dance that I’ve been working on, it’s not as polished as the last one, but I’d like to show it to you.”

Lilia smiled, “of course Yuuri, we’d be delighted.”

Yuuri nodded to Dalina and she grinned, running her fingers over the strings in a quick rasgueado to draw everyone’s attention back to Yuuri. He stood with his head bent down and one knee bent. As Dalina started playing a fast paced ballad he brought his arms over his head in a come-hither movement and looked straight at V’tor. V’tor couldn’t help himself and whistled quietly. He heard Yuri give a faint ‘tch’ in complaint but wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted. The dance was fast paced and passionate and every so often during the dance Yuuri would fix V’tor with a smouldering look. By the end of the dance V’tor was a wreck, his breathing was faster than usual and his colour was heightened. Yuuri wouldn’t let V’tor near for a week and then he produced this. It was unfair torture. There was no way that this time he would be able to stand without falling over. So he whistled loudly at Yuuri’s final pose and clapped until his hands ached. Yuuri bowed to the weyrleaders shyly and went over to hug Dalina.

“Thank you.”

“No problem Yuuri, although I think you might have given yourself a few more interesting problems after that dance.” Yuuri looked puzzled and she nodded towards the table where V’tor, Yuri, Phichit and C’ris were sitting. Oh! V’tor was blushing, Yuri looked furious and C’ris was looking at Yuuri with narrowed eyes. Phichit was grinning gleefully. Yuuri walked over to the table slightly nervously.

“What in the name of Faranth was that?” Yuri spat furiously.

“A song derived from old earth flamenco guitar pieces?” Yuuri answered mildly.

“Well, don’t do it again.”

C’ris leaned over, “is our little Yuri having a small reaction to the sheer passion of that performance? Hmm? I think that everyone in the entire room is also having the same problem.”

“C’ris.” V’tor growled, there was a warning note in V’tor’s voice that none of them had heard before. Yuuri raised his eyebrows.

“Really C’ris, I’m glad you enjoyed it but I think you’re exaggerating.”

Phichit cleared his throat, “Yuuri, have you actually looked at anyone besides V’tor after that dance?”

“Er, no?” Yuuri glanced round and was shocked to see looks of stunned bemusement and attraction on the faces of quite a few of the weyrfolk.

“Well, everyone!” V’tor said loudly in a falsely cheerful voice, “I think that I need to rest and recuperate after that, and that I should take Yuuri back to my b…quarters and rest.” C’ris snorted, Yuri made a disgusted noise and Phichit howled with laughter.

“Rest, is that what you’re calling it?” C’ris leered. Yuuri bit his lip not knowing whether embarrassment or amusement was the dominant emotion at the moment.

“Do … do you need help getting back to your quarters, V’tor?” He asked mildly.

“Why yes, my Yuuri. I believe I do.” At that they all burst out laughing.

“Thank you, all of you.” Yuuri bowed to them and placing V’tor’s arm over his shoulders for support they left the hall.

~

When Yuuri saw Nerene the day after the dance, she had just raised one eyebrow and he blushed furiously. The next week was difficult, he kept getting propositioned by both male and female dragonriders and eventually started to hide in V’tor’s quarters. V’tor was vastly unamused and Anastasia usually reacted to his emotions by becoming aggressive with any who approached Yuuri while in V’tor’s company.

The hatching was due anytime and C’ris volunteered to go and fetch Minako and Mari from Southern to watch. Yuuri endured Minako flirting with C’ris over the evening meal stoically and Mari quite frequently rolled her eyes, eventually turning to Yuuri.

“How’s it going little brother?”

“I think I’m ready, although…”

“Just stop right there,” Mari held up her hand. “I know you’re about to criticise yourself. I’ve been spending my time listening to people today and I hope you realise that you have the respect of everyone in this weyr. Even if, by some weird circumstance, you don’t impress a dragon, which let me tell you, I would be very surprised about, you will still have that respect.” Yuuri’s jaw dropped at the unexpected interruption and he gaped at Mari, he couldn’t think of anything to say in response. A hand lifted his chin and V’tor whispered into his ear. “She’s right, my Yuuri. Both I and the dragons see great things ahead for you.” Yuuri gasped and turned around to kiss V’tor passionately, to accompanying whistles from C’ris and Yuri’s retching noises.

It gradually penetrated Yuuri’s head that V’tor had stopped responding and the hall had become silent. A hum vibrated through the room and suddenly people leapt into motion.

V’tor stood as fast as he could and grasped Yuuri by the shoulders. “Come Yuuri, you must get into your hatching robes.” Yuuri looked up at V’tor with panicked eyes, but Vicchan chirped and nudged him with his head, startling Yuuri out of his blank state of mind. He rose and gripped V’tor’s shoulder, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek.

“I’m ready.”

Nerene rushed over to Yuri, holding his robes. “Now, remember what I said. C’ris will drop you off in the hatching grounds and then come back for Yuuri, and you must use your crutches and not put any weight on that leg.” Yuri looked mulishly back at Nerene, irritated by her fussing and then sighed and his face filled with determination, “I will, I’m not prepared to risk anything happening. I’m going to impress a dragon this time, even if I can’t walk!”

Yuuri walked with V’tor to the quarters they were using and grabbed the robe from where it was hanging. He noticed his hands were shaking and pulled the material close taking a deep breath.

“Here, let me help.” V’tor came up behind Yuuri, taking the robe from Yuuri and easing it down over Yuuri’s shoulders, smoothing the fabric as he went. Yuuri looked up into V’tor’s eyes, turned and wrapped his arms around him. “You’ll be fine, just remember that I love you and Makkath believes in you too.”

 _We will be with you._  The great dragon nodded his great at Yuuri as they walked past to be collected by C’ris. Yuuri stopped and threw his arms around Makkath’s snout.

 _I’ll try my hardest to be confident._  He said to the dragon.

~

Felath landed away from the eggs so that Yuuri could get down. V’tor looked at him with shining eyes from Felath’s back and reached out to grip Yuuri’s hand. Yuuri told Vicchan to go with V’tor, kissed V’tor’s hand and stepped down, walking towards the other candidates. Yuuri waved to Phichit when he heard him yelling his name over the loudness of the crowd.  He had just arrived in time to take a seat with his father.

Yuuri could feel the heat from the hatching ground rising up through the soles of his boots; it would become uncomfortable soon.  Finally he allowed his attention to rest on the eggs, they were rocking slightly.  Thirty eggs lay near the end of the ground with the golden Queen egg separated slightly.  The candidates roughly circled the eggs with more girls near the Queen egg than the others.  Yuuri joined the circle next to Yuri as the other candidates had left a large gap. He looked at Yuri, who looked back, grimaced and straightened up as much as possible on his crutches. Yuuri smiled, knowing that this wasn’t the time to talk.

The humming of the dragons of the weyr, perched above the tiers of seating, had intensified and one of the candidates gasped as a long crack appeared in one of the eggs and a blue dragonet fell out.

Yuuri watched in fascination as one by one the eggs cracked, the pieces falling aside, the dragonets climbing out of the remains, still glistening from their time inside.  He watched as the dragonets instinctively looked around at the boys and girls standing around the eggs and took stumbling steps forward.  The dragons in the tiers above paused in their humming as the first impression took place, the candidate, who Yuuri had seen helping around the weyr during his stay, lit up with a wondrous smile, and threw his arms around the dragon’s neck.

“His name is Lanath!” as he gazed into the blue dragonet’s whirling eyes.  

Yuuri’s heart ached at the sight of the love between the two.  He brought his attention back to the rest of the dragons, they were pairing off one by one, each candidate calling out the name of their dragon as they bonded.  Yuuri gradually backed up, not wanting to get in the way of the rest.  He knew that this had been a mistake. He knew that he wasn’t fit material to impress a dragon, he glanced sideways at Yuri who was trying not to look defeated.

Emotional candidates were hugging their dragonets and telling them that they were perfect and that they loved them.  Yuuri knew that this was what would happen, he was not fit to be a dragonrider, he had told V’tor that this would happen, but no, he had been forced here.  Yuuri shook himself from his slight daze; it had all happened so quickly, getting slightly irritated he squared his shoulders and looked up.  

There was one little bronze dragon left over, creeling as it stumbled about looking for its partner. It headed towards them and stopped looking between Yuri and Yuuri. The little bronze decided and nudged Yuri. Yuri looked up and saw the bronze dragon in front of him.

“Who? Me?” He asked. There was a pause and then a look of delight spread across Yuri’s face. “He says his name is Potrath!”

Yuuri felt tears in his eyes and he smiled as Yuri threw his arms around the dragon, hopping on one foot and shouting out that his name was Potrath, the boy had been through so much lately and deserved the honour of a bronze dragon.

He sighed in resignation. There were no eggs left unhatched apart from the queen egg and no dragons left unpaired, but his eyes were drawn to the cluster of potential riders surrounding the Queen egg as it finally broke open. He turned back to Yuri thinking to help the boy, but found that Nerene had already rushed over and was alternately scolding and hugging him. Yuuri did not know what to do, he felt both humiliated and relieved at the same time. Looking up at V’tor in the stands he realised that no one was looking at him or Yuri, they were watching the queen dragonet who seemed to be rejecting all the candidates that were surrounding her and heading towards him.  

Yuuri moved to get out of the way, but tripped over a shard of eggshell and landed hard.  His hand came down on something sharp and he hissed in pain, he couldn’t help a few tears gathering in his eyes as he looked down at his hand to see the damage.

 _You are hurt?_   The voice was inquiring.

“I … no, it’s just a small cut.”  Yuuri mumbled to himself.  He felt something nudge his knee and looked up into the radiant whirling eyes of a dragon.

_My name is Varanth._

Yuuri’s jaw fell open, as he looked at the stunningly gorgeous little dragon that still towered over him on the floor. He felt a rush of love and adoration fill him up and the tears that had been forming overflowed down his cheek.  She pushed at his knee again, not understanding why he wasn’t responding.  

 _Are you well?_   She asked.

“I’m fine,” Yuuri sniffled, and scrambling to his knees he tentatively put his arms around the dragon, petting her wings, “I’m fine! You are perfect, you are beautiful, and you are mine?”  Yuuri finally realised what this meant and shock passed through him again.  He had impressed the Queen?

Louder murmurs rose from the stands above.  It had taken many years for the lord holders and weyrleaders to agree to present girls as candidates for the hatching of dragons other than queen eggs.  Gradually female dragonriders were becoming an accepted normality.  But a male had never yet impressed a queen dragon.

Yuuri didn’t hear the voices; he didn’t register anything other than the beautiful creature before him.  He felt tiny claws sinking into his shoulder as Vicchan settled and then chirruped at the queen.  “Er, Varanth, meet Vicchan.”  The queen looked at the tiny dragon sitting on Yuuri’s shoulder and made a quizzical noise.

 _You are small.  We will be friends._   Yuuri felt a chuckle bubbling up from inside.  Varanth was so firm and confident.  He could never imagine feeling the level of panic he had felt before with her beside him.   _Why would you panic?  We are together._

Yuuri looked up at the stands where he could see V’tor with his hands up to his face in shock.  The weyrleader and weyrwoman were approaching him.  He turned back to Varanth and stroked her face.  Her eyes whirled at him  _You are worried now.  What is wrong_.

_Nothing is wrong. How could anything be wrong when you are here._

V’tor had eventually fought his way to Yuuri’s side in the hatching grounds his eyes shining. “Yuuri! My Yuuri!” Yuuri found himself being kissed ferociously. He melted into V’tor’s embrace but then remembered just how many people were watching and disentangled himself with difficulty.

Minako, Mari and Phichit had also come down onto the sands and were grinning at him with tears in their eyes.

~

It was later, much later. The excitement had died down slightly, Yuri had refused to leave the hall and he was sitting on the floor with his arms around his bronze dragon. Both of them were fast asleep. Nerene had pronounced that Yuri hadn’t done any lasting harm to his leg and informed him that he was very lucky indeed, then hugged him tightly and cried all over him, which he endured with surprising forbearance.

Yuuri was still in a slight daze sitting next to V’tor and holding his hand. He kept looking at Varanth who was asleep next to him. He alternated between grinning like a madman and crying with joy. V’tor had not left his side all evening or let go of Yuuri’s hand. They had celebrated together and Yuuri had tried to take in the fact that this queen, Varanth was the one who would lead the new weyr in the Southern continent, which meant that he would be a weyrleader. When he had realised this enormous fact he turned to V’tor with a worried face.

“I have to be a weyrleader? I don’t know anything about running a weyr!” V’tor had stopped him with a finger over his lips.

“None of the candidates know anything about running a weyr. You would not be expected to do it straight away. You’ll have three years to learn before Varanth rises to mate and you officially become the new weyrleader.” Yuuri paled at that thought and he clutched V’tor tightly, burying his head in V’tor’s shoulder. “What’s wrong Yuuri?”

“The,” Yuuri looked at Varanth who had just fallen asleep and wouldn’t be disturbed by anything he said or thought, he swallowed, “the mating flight.”

He didn’t need to explain any further and V’tor pulling him closer murmured into Yuuri’s hair. “It’s three years away Yuuri. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of grisly stories, as you aren’t weyrbred that are simply not true. Wait and see, Varanth is very likely to bond deeply with Makkath, as we are already bonded and you can hear Makkath as well. Promise me you won’t worry about it until nearer the time?”

Yuuri allowed himself to be reassured. “I promise.”

“If it’s any help, you know I did not want to be a weyrleader of another weyr, until you came into my life and said you’d think about coming with me and being my partner no matter what happened. And now there is the prospect of spending the rest of our lives together and it seems too much to hope for.” V’tor took Yuuri’s hand and kissed his knuckles again whilst looking deep into Yuuri’s eyes.

“Yuuri, please, stay close to me and never leave me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are. I have an epilogue, which I will post as a separate story when I'm happy with it, but I don't want to change the rating on this story, hence the series.
> 
> Thank you for reading to the end and bearing with me. If you liked this story then I hope you look into Anne McCaffrey’s dragonriders series, as this story is a riff off of her books, mainly Dragonsong, Dragonquest, Dragondrums and the short story ‘The smallest Dragonboy’. And not only are we getting a YOI film but also a dragonriders film!
> 
> Having read through my whole story, I apologise for the first two chapters – they’re awful – one day I’ll have to go back and rewrite!
> 
> Rasgueado: a flamenco guitar technique
> 
> As always, I’d love to get feedback and chat to people. If you want to chat about dragons or YOI on tumblr my url is [@narcissuspseudonarcissus](https://narcissuspseudonarcissus.tumblr.com)


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